In this episode of Truth, Lies & Alzheimer’s, we discuss cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)—a silent brain condition that can increase dementia risk by up to four times within five years.

Learn how this condition affects blood vessels in the brain, why risk increases even without a stroke, and how it can be detected through standard imaging like MRIs.

While there is no direct treatment yet, early awareness allows for better management of key risk factors like blood pressure, cholesterol, and overall lifestyle.

Understanding these early warning signs can help you take proactive steps toward protecting brain health.

Have a look at our updated website - https://www.mindingdementiasummit.com/

About the Host:

Author Lisa Skinner is a behavioral specialist with expertise in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. In her 30+year career working with family members and caregivers, Lisa has taught them how to successfully navigate the many challenges that accompany this heartbreaking disease. Lisa is both a Certified Dementia Practitioner and is also a certified dementia care trainer through the Alzheimer’s Association. She also holds a degree in Human Behavior.

Her latest book, “Truth, Lies & Alzheimer’s – Its Secret Faces” continues Lisa’s quest of working with dementia-related illnesses and teaching families and caregivers how to better understand the daunting challenges of brain disease. Her #1 Best-seller book “Not All Who Wander Need Be Lost,” was written at their urging. As someone who has had eight family members diagnosed with dementia, Lisa Skinner has found her calling in helping others through the struggle so they can have a better-quality relationship with their loved ones through education and through her workshops on counter-intuitive solutions and tools to help people effectively manage the symptoms of brain disease. Lisa Skinner has appeared on many national and regional media broadcasts. Lisa helps explain behaviors caused by dementia, encourages those who feel burdened, and gives practical advice for how to respond.

So many people today are heavily impacted by Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. The Alzheimer's Association and the World Health Organization have projected that the number of people who will develop Alzheimer's disease by the year 2050 worldwide will triple if a treatment or cure is not found. Society is not prepared to care for the projected increase of people who will develop this devastating disease. In her 30 years of working with family members and caregivers who suffer from dementia, Lisa has recognized how little people really understand the complexities of what living with this disease is really like. For Lisa, it starts with knowledge, education, and training.

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Hello everybody, and welcome to another New

episode of the truth, lies and Alzheimer's show. I'm Lisa

Skinner, your host. I learned something really interesting

recently that I'm going to share with you today. Did you know

that there's a silent brain condition that actually can

quadruple our risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and

dementia. We can't feel it. Most people don't know they have it.

It's called cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and it shows up

early and predicts who's going to develop dementia within five

years. This was just published a study of nearly 2 million older

adults. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy is when amyloid

proteins build up in brain blood vessels instead of the brain

tissue. So what happens is it weakens the vessel walls and

increases our stroke risk and dramatically increases our

dementia risk, even without history of strokes, within five

years of a diagnosis, people with this condition were four

times more likely to develop dementia than Those without it.

The increased risk was present, whether or not they ever had a

stroke. And that matters, because we've always thought the

stroke was the problem. Well, it turns out the vascular amyloid

itself drives cognitive decline independently. So here's why

this changes things. I guess we can call it a game changer. We

detect this on standard brain imaging. MRIs show microbleeds,

white matter changes and cortical superficial siderosis,

cerebral amyloid angiopathy and five year dementia risk in older

adults. These are visible markers of cerebral amyloid

angiopathy. Most radiologists mention them in reports. Most

doctors ignore them, but we shouldn't. If someone has these

findings, they need aggressive vascular risk management and

close cognitive monitoring, not just a follow up as needed.

We've all heard that before, so the problem is that there's no

treatment that specifically targets cerebral amyloid

angiopathy yet, but we can manage what we know increases

risk. We can manage our blood pressure, our diabetes, our

cholesterol and our lifestyle factors, and we can screen for

cognitive changes early, when interventions still work. So now

I am going to share some real news that hopefully you can use.

And this is also extremely interesting. This the title of

this article is called, can Alzheimer's cause pain and how

to recognize it? Pain is more common in Alzheimer's than many

of us realize. Between 60 and 80% of individuals with dementia

regularly experience pain, yet it often goes unnoticed, partly

because communication becomes harder as the disease

progresses. So what can we do? Well, limited mobility can

trigger this discomfort. So reduced activity may result in

stiffness, sore joints and contractures, rigid areas of

tissue that restrict movement and cause pain, additionally

previously healed injuries like a hip or knee damage can flare

up when we don't use our muscles. Chronic Pain may be

linked to Alzheimer's itself, ongoing. Pain, and the

definition of that is lasting over three months may relate to

Alzheimer's related cognitive changes. The disease can impair

parts of our brains responsible for processing and regulating

pain, specifically regions tied to the neurotransmitter

noreneferin, which helps send pain signals. Other medical

issues, especially urinary tract infections, can contribute.

Infections like UTIs are common in older adults and may also

cause pain, such as burning when urinating, pelvic discomfort,

lower back pain and abdominal pain, untreated, these

infections can accelerate cognitive decline and should be

addressed promptly. So why does this matter for caregivers,

simple people with Alzheimer's disease often can't express

discomfort clearly, misinterpreting signs of pain,

like restlessness, irritability or aggression can lead to delays

in providing relief, so recognizing the possible

underlying causes is vital to offering appropriate care and

improving quality of Life. And thank you to Dr Riza GOMI for

this very fascinating and informative article. So that's

going to wrap it up for today's episode of truth, lies and

Alzheimer's show. I'm Lisa Skinner, your host, and of

course, I'll be back next week with another brand new episode

for you. So as always, I hope you have a wonderful rest of

your week and that you stay happy and healthy, and I'll see

you back next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.