Dementia and Alzheimer’s

Occasionally misplacing your keys or forgetting someone's name is usually nothing to worry about. But having difficulty remembering how to tell time or getting lost in familiar places can be symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. We want to know exactly what's causing mental confusion or memory loss. To find concrete answers, we'll use a combination of physical and mental tests, including:

• Blood and Other Lab Tests
• Brain Scans
• EEGs (Electroencephalogram), to Measure Brain-Wave Activity
• Physical and Neurological Exams
• Psychiatric Evaluation
• Verbal and Written Tests of Memory, Cognitive, and Thinking Abilities

These tests will help us better understand your wellness and your background, putting us on the path to creating a personalized and compassionate dementia or Alzheimer's care plan for you.

You may be familiar with the name "Alzheimer's." But there's actually more than one type of dementia. We want to educate you about dementia, easing your mind with knowledge and understanding. The different types of dementia AdventHealth can treat include:

• Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, taking years to develop, and ultimately leading to the need for full-time assistance.
• Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a loss of nerve cells in the front and side of the brain that leads to changes in your personality and behavior.
• Lewy body dementia is caused by a build up of protein deposits in nerve cells that affects thinking, memory, and motor control.
• Mixed dementia is a combination of diagnoses, usually when Alzheimer's is mixed with vascular dementia or Lewy body dementia.
• Vascular dementia affects your thinking skills and occurs after a heart attack or stroke.

Dementia touches your whole life, which is why we take a whole-person approach to caring for you. Your care plan may include medications that slow down memory loss and ease sleeplessness, counselors to help with mood or personality changes, or therapists to stimulate your brain with energizing exercises. If you need help at home, our social workers and home-care helpers can guide you, working to make each day as easy as possible. We'll also help you to find a convenient support group, if you wish, so that you can benefit from the warmth and understanding in the generous community around us.

Our ultimate goal is a world without dementia. Our dedicated researchers are constantly working to uncover new medications and therapies for dementia. Some of this groundbreaking research has occurred at our own Neuroscience Institute in Florida, where we treat more neurological patients than any other hospital in the U.S. No matter what, we'll always be here to support you in body, mind, and spirit, helping to make each day the best it can be.