Dementia

What is dementia?

Dementia encompasses cognitive impairment that often occurs with aging or other factors. It’s characterized by forgetfulness and confusion. Using medical marijuana appears to have a calming effect in people struggling with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia, reducing behavioral issues, anxiety, and depression.

What are the symptoms of dementia?

The common symptoms of dementia include:

• Forgetting names, conversations, and appointments
• Getting lost in familiar places
• Memory loss
• Losing items easily
• Repeating questions or comments over and over
• Poor decision-making
• Problems with personal hygiene
• Forgetting how to complete basic tasks
• Personality changes
• Mood swings
• Depression
• Sleeping changes
• Wandering
• Difficulty finding words or identifying objects
• Poor planning
• Social withdrawal
• Delusions

When left untreated, dementia can feel crippling and diminish your quality of life. While often not curable, treatment helps prevent your symptoms from worsening rapidly.

What are the risk factors for dementia?

The cause of dementia isn’t fully understood, but it has to do with changes in your brain’s structure or functions. Likely risk factors include older age, some medical issues, family history of dementia, and unhealthy lifestyle habits like smoking, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, toxic chemical exposure, lack of exercise, and poor diet and sleep patterns. 

How is dementia diagnosed?

Your provider can diagnose dementia after reviewing your symptoms and medical history. They check your vital signs, complete a physical exam, and may order blood tests or other diagnostic tests.

A specialist also completes a psychiatric evaluation and cognitive tests that assess your thinking skills, reasoning ability, emotions, memory, problem-solving skills, and overall cognitive functioning.

How does medical marijuana help with dementia?

Medical marijuana isn’t a cure for dementia but can relieve bothersome symptoms and behavioral problems. It also helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression associated with dementia.

If you qualify for medical marijuana to overcome dementia complications, the experts at Relief Clinic will help you obtain a marijuana certificate and gain access to this effective treatment. You might also make lifestyle changes, take dietary supplements, undergo behavioral therapy, or try other treatments in addition to using medical marijuana.

To learn more about medical marijuana’s effects on patients with dementia, call the Relief Clinic office or book an appointment online today.