in india four million people are afflicted with some form of dementia and this number is expected to triple by 2050 dementia refers to a deterioration in a persons mental faculties commonly affecting memory behaviour and thinking which is serious enough to impact the patients daily life though there are many causes of dementia most of them being untreatable the most common type is alzheimers while people above the age of 60 years are most vulnerable to alzheimers it can manifest in the thirties or forties especially if there is a family history of early onset of alzheimers the symptoms begin insidiously and are often passed off as simply being forgetful this slowly progresses to the stage when it is evident that something is amiss most patients follow a characteristic pattern of memory impairment progressing to slowness in doing routine tasks language impairment followed by impaired judgement therefore it is important to be aware of the early warning signs for timely detection and managementmost common signs of alzheimers1 memory lossthis is the most common symptom and manifests itself as shortterm memory loss in the early stages the person becomes forgetful and asks for the same information repeatedly memory of old things and events is preserved in the early stages of dementia2 disorientation of time and place the person may not be aware about the time and the place where he is he gets confused in situations and at times does not understand the events happening around him getting lost while driving a commonly travelled route may be a symptom too3 difficulty in communication speech reading and writing conversations become hard as the ailing persons do not remember words and cant find the right word which they want to communicate they may call things by the wrong name such as calling a table a bench 4 frequently losing or misplacing thingsit is normal to lose or misplace things occasionally but if it is too often it can be an early warning sign the person finds it difficult to trace objects and often finds them in unusual places such as finding a jam bottle in the clothes cupboard 5 poor planning and execution trouble in planning and executing an event such as a party or managing monthly expenses making a dish could become a challenge even though it may have been done on multiple occasions in the past6 routine chores become a burden routine daytoday tasks requiring just a slight thought may take a longer time as the disease progresses simply doing routine activities like getting bathed and dressed may take forever the person appears confused about the sequence of doing things and takes much longer to do routine tasks 7 poor judgment and decisionmakingthese patients lose the ability to evaluate the different factors that should be considered when making a decision such a situation also leads to a person not caring much about personal grooming and hygiene8 social withdrawalforgetfulness difficulty in language inability to do routine chores can