What is the difference between white matter disease and dementia?
What is the difference between white matter disease and dementia?
Unlike Alzheimer’s disease which shrinks the hippocampus causing progressive memory loss, white matter disease is a more diffuse mind-robbing condition that targets small blood vessels deep within the brain’s white matter.
Does Alzheimer’s affect white matter?
Recent findings: Neuroimaging studies have found that patients with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease have widespread white matter abnormalities at a stage similar to those reported in Alzheimer’s disease, whereas gray matter structures were relatively intact.
Are white matter lesions normal?
Combining these three studies together, it is clear that small (punctate) white matter lesions are extremely common, they are found in roughly half of the otherwise healthy population in their 40’s, and WML increase with age.
Can stress cause white matter lesions?
Neuroscientists at a UC Berkeley lab have uncovered evidence that a well-known stress hormone trips a switch in stem cells in the brain, causing them to produce a white matter cell that ultimately can change the way circuits are connected in the brain.
How are white matter changes related to dementia?
AD, frontotemporal dementia, and related neurodegenerative diseases are widely thought to involve primary loss of neurons in gray matter regions, and white matter changes have been regarded as secondary. Yet recent evidence has raised the provocative idea that even neurodegeneration can be triggered by white matter pathology.
What are the symptoms of white matter disease?
White matter plays an essential role in communication within the brain and between the brain and spinal cord. As a result, damage to this tissue can lead to issues with: In the beginning stages of progressive white matter disease, the symptoms may be mild.
What are the treatment options for white matter disease?
For many people with white matter disease due to small strokes, treatment options can include improving their cardiovascular health by eating a healthful diet, avoiding tobacco use, and taking medications for hypertension or high cholesterol.
What makes traumatic brain injury a white matter disorder?
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) qualifies as a white matter disorder because of the ubiquitous lesion, known as diffuse axonal injury, in the white matter of TBI patients.20 A variety of primary brain neoplasms also primarily affect white matter.