NEW YORK: New data confirms a profound link between these two diseases of the brain. Having a stroke more than doubles the risk of developing dementia. Out of every 100 stroke patients without a past history of dementia, 16 are likely to develop dementia after their first or subsequent stroke.
Stroke happens when blood stops flowing to parts of the brain, causing cells to die. Vascular cognitive impairment is also the result of blood vessel problems and results in a range of cognitive deficits, from relatively mild symptoms to vascular dementia. Both obvious clinical strokes and covert strokes — the type that happens when a small vessel becomes permanently blocked but there is no immediate outward physical damage — can lead to dementia.
“Stroke and dementia need to be studied together because in some ways they are one and the same,” says Dr. Andrew Demchuk, Director, Calgary Stroke Program and Heart and Stroke Foundation.