I completely understand how dementia is horrific in that it eliminates a persons mental faculties causing them to forget anyone and everything they knew, but what/why does it eventually cause death? Is it because their body “forgets” how to function or what?
Side note: maybe I’m wrong in assuming that everyone will die once diagnosed? Is their a spectrum for this?
In: Biology
The most common cause of death in dementia patients is pneumonia (~40%). This is because of lack of coordination between swallowing, breathing etc. which leads to inhalation of food/gastric contents which causes pneumonia (this is called aspiration pneumonia)
Dementia patients will also be more likely to die from other health events such as heart attacks, infections etc. as they become frail quicker and do not have sufficient reserve to cope. They can’t do the basic things involved in maintaining a semblance of health and this leads to decline in all other areas of health.
I guess you could say that people don’t die from dementia but that dementia leads to them dying of other causes which would be survivable by a healthy person.
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