Dementia — especially Alzheimer's — is often called the long goodbye, or the slow funeral, so powerful is the displacement and detachment of the victim from normal, daily life. Watching someone you love slowly lose themselves, and sadly even forget who you are, can be both traumatic and difficult. Dementia is an overall term used to describe symptoms that impact memory, performance of daily activities, and communication abilities. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. Alzheimer's disease gets worse with time and affects memory, language, and thought. Have you or a loved one been affected by dementia?

Recently, a new study has suggested that while dementia is thought to be a natural progression of aging, there are a number of risk factors, and therefore steps you can take, to try and prevent dementia. Some of the risk factors are obvious, while some not as much. Are you aware of all the risk factors of developing dementia?

"Over a third of dementias are theoretically preventable so that's huge. These factors worked on the brain either by changing resiliency making people more or less liable to have a problem when the pathology occurs or by direct damage on the brain," Dr. Gill Livingston, a University College London professor who led the commission, said. The findings were published Thursday morning in the prestigious journal, The Lancet, and stem from an international commission of 24 leading experts from around the world. Do you keep up to date with medical information, and try and follow their suggestions, in an effort to keep yourself healthier?

Understanding what dementia does to our loved ones, or ourselves, helps us cope and perhaps even embrace the new person who slowly replaces the loved one we have known all our life. There are some excellent movies that shad some light on what it is like for those going through dementia, and Alzheimer's. Have you seen any of these films?

This is my favorite quote which I first saw at the nursing home where my dad spent a few months. We sometimes forget that even though our loved one may not remember us, may even resent us being there, and often is not able to connect, they are still a person worthy of love, time, patience and above all, respect. Do you feel this quote is appropriate?