Myth: All of us will have dementia as we grow old
Most people see dementia as a normal, unavoidable disease that happens to everybody as they get older. But that’s fake news, too. While it is true that we become less mentally sharp as we get older, that has nothing to do with dementia. Not every old adult has it and it surely doesn’t happen to everybody.
Also, if you look at the numbers, you’ll see that dementia is not a normal part of people’s aging process. According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2020 report, the most common dementia form affects around 5 percent of people in the United States.
Myth: Only the elderly can suffer from dementia
While it is true that dementia affects mostly people over 65, that’s not always the case. Furthermore, what we do in our early years of life can also play an important part in whether we’ll have dementia or not as we grow old.
According to statistics, 30 year old people have been diagnosed with dementia, proving that even though it doesn’t happen all the time, not only the elderly can suffer from it. Also, according to a 2017 study published in the European Journal of Neurology, researchers discovered that 260 out of 100.000 patients start experiencing dementia symptoms between 30 and 64 years old. Moreover, 420 out of 100.000 patients develop the disease between 55 and 64.
