Dementia Life Expectancy

by Jack Morgan

Dementia life expectancy is the measure of the time duration or how long an average individual will survive or expected to live after he or she has developed dementia. It has been found out that an average individual who has been diagnosed with dementia as a result of Alzheimer disease will live approximately for 4.5 years beyond the diagnosis.

Dementia life expectancy may vary from person to person as it also varies on the basis of the cause of dementia. The other factors that determine the life expectancy include time of diagnosis and the reason of having dementia. Dementia is considered as an end of life symptom as any individual who has been diagnosed with the disease is at the final stage of his or her life. Thus for some this final stage may be for 10 years while for others it may be longer. Some may even pass out even earlier than 10 years after being diagnosed with dementia.

The condition is caused by various situations like diseases that result to nerve cells degeneration like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. It is also associated to health condition that attack blood cells like stroke leading to multiple infarction dementia. At times, it can be due to excessive drug use and alcohol or nutritional deficiencies, specifically in folate and Vitamin B12.

Women lived for about 4.6 years after being diagnosed of dementia. On the other hand, men lived for only 4.1 years. Furthermore, people under 70 years of age lived for 10.7 years on average compared to those who were over 90 years of age and lived only for 3.8 years before they died. And patients who were frail at the time of diagnosis didn't live any longer than 3 years. The study concluded that the average life expectancy of a person who was diagnosed with AD or dementia was 4.5 years.

People with dementia in its first stage usually experience changes in thinking and memory like forgetfulness. This can be easily noticed by family members, but a person suffering from such condition might try to hide it by making up stories to fill memory gaps. At this point, the individual may also express annoyance or anger needing memory skills.

The most common causes of dementia in individual between the age of 45 years and 65 years are human immunodeficiency (HIV), Huntington's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Individual who develops dementia brought by multiple sclerosis is expected to live about seven years lesser than people who don't have dementia. The life span of individual with Huntington disease related dementia is expected to live for 15 years. Individual with HIV and developed dementia has a life expectancy of 25 years but with the condition that he or she does not succumb to the other effects of this virus.

Dementia that is generally brought on by brain deprived of nutrients and oxygen as a result of shrinking arteries and strokes. This type of dementia is known as vascular dementia and the average dementia life expectancy for these patients is about five years or less.

Overall, the dementia life expectancy is really not predictable as with other diseases. It can progress for around decades and may shorten life especially at the later stages along with other health disorders like pneumonia. Understanding the stages and its progression and taking care of other needs is a must for people with dementia.



Learn more about the stages of dementia. Stop by the <a href='http://stagesofdementia.org'>stagesofdementia.org</a> website where you can find out all about <a href="http://stagesofdementia.org/dementia-life-expectancy/"
>the life expectancy of dementia</a> and the different available treatments.