Dementia is a common degenerative disease that affects millions of people all over the world. The main risk factors that can affect your likelihood of developing dementia include age and family history. Dementia is a common disease that affects the elderly populations. The main type of dementia that most people associate with the disease is Alzheimer’s disease. If you or someone you love has been having trouble remembering things they could be in the early stages of this disease.

Here are some of the most common symptoms of dementia that could go unnoticed:

1. Memory loss
A common symptom of this disease is overall memory loss. Many times a person who has this disease may forget a person’s name or the date of something. This can easily be a sign that you have too many things to remember and can often go unnoticed. If you start to see that you or someone you love is forgetting important things and does not have as good of a memory as they once had you should highly recommend that they see a doctor.

2. Problem solving difficulties
Another common symptom related to dementia is problem solving difficulties. If you are unable to problem solve things and fix things like you were once able to it could be a sign of dementia. To help keep your mind sharp you may try doing word searches, sudoku and puzzles to straighten your problem solving skills.

3. Confusion about time and place
One of the most common signs of people who have dementia is confusion about time and place. It is common to forget what day it is every once in a while but when it happens frequently you need to be concerned. Another major thing to look for is forgetting where you are. If you forget where you are it is a major sign that something is wrong.

4. Challenges understanding visual information
Understanding visual information, like signs and instructions, should be easy, however, many people with dementia cannot process this information. The ability to process and remember visual information can be a struggle for those with dementia.

5. Speech issues
Another common issue is the ability to produce accurate speech. If you find yourself stumbling over your words or unable to think of the right word you may need to see a doctor.

6. Misplacing personal items
Everyone forgets where they put their keys or where they left their phone. This is an issue that most people face on a daily basis when we are too busy with our lives to remember what we did with smaller things. Since this is so common many people do not think of this as an early warning sign of dementia, even though it is. If you or someone you love is frequently misplacing items and unable to find them it could be a sign that dementia is progressing. If they lose their items more than ever you should help them keep track of things and get them help.

7. Poor judgement
Another common symptom of this disease is poor judgement. As people with dementia age they often do things that they know would not have been okay in the past. For example, they may start cooking something and decide to take a nap. This is a classic example of poor judgement.