Misplacing your phone, forgetting the name of that guy in that movie, and needing to ask the bank teller what the date is are all normal brain lapses as you age. But if you’re worried about dementia—a fear that affects nearly 40% of adults 55 and over—it’s important to understand the real symptoms.
Dementia, the general term for loss of memory, language, and other thinking abilities that interfere with daily life, is most commonly in the form of Alzheimer's disease. But other types are Lewy body dementia (which Robin Williams had been diagnosed with before his death by suicide), Parkinson’s dementia, vascular dementia and frontotemporal dementia—the condition affecting both Bruce Willis and Wendy Williams.
