Dementia

FAQ
Early signs of dementia may include memory loss and thinking problems that interfere with day-to-day tasks like doing finances, making and keeping appointments, and maintaining normal activities.
Memory loss, defined as the inability to retain information, is not a normal part of aging. Normal aging includes slowing of thinking and having moments of forgetfulness with rare words and names, whereas the symptoms of dementia are progressive.
Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontal temporal dementia, and Lewy body dementia are common types of dementia.
Certain lifestyle strategies may lower the risk of dementia, but there is no known way to prevent it.
Diagnosing dementia involves cognitive tests and brain imaging.

David Weisman, MD
Medical Reviewer
David Weisman, MD, is the director of the Clinical Trial Center at Abington Neurological Associates in Pennsylvania, where he has conducted numerous clinical trials into mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease to develop disease-modifying drugs.
Dr. Weisman has dedicated his research career toward advancing new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and other dementias, and he devotes his clinical practice to memory and cognitive problems.
He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Franklin and Marshall College, then an MD from Penn State College of Medicine. After an internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco, he completed his neurology residency at Yale, where he served as chief resident. He then went to the University California in San Diego for fellowship training in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
Weisman has published papers and studies in journals such as Neurology, JAMA Neurology, Stroke, and The New England Journal of Medicine, among others.

Jason Paul Chua, MD, PhD
Medical Reviewer
Jason Chua, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Division of Movement Disorders at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He received his training at the University of Michigan, where he obtained medical and graduate degrees, then completed a residency in neurology and a combined clinical/research fellowship in movement disorders and neurodegeneration.
Dr. Chua’s primary research interests are in neurodegenerative disease, with a special focus on the cellular housekeeping pathway of autophagy and its impact on disease development in diseases such as Parkinson disease. His work has been supported by multiple research training and career development grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the American Academy of Neurology. He is the primary or coauthor of 14 peer-reviewed scientific publications and two peer-reviewed online learning modules from the American Academy of Neurology. He is also a contributing author to The Little Black Book of Neurology by Osama Zaldat, MD and Alan Lerner, MD, and has peer reviewed for the scientific journals Autophagy, eLife, and Neurobiology of Disease.

Jessica Baity, MD
Medical Reviewer
Jessica Baity, MD, is a board-certified neurologist practicing in southern Louisiana. She cares for a variety of patients in all fields of neurology, including epilepsy, headache, dementia, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, and stroke.
She received a bachelor's degree in international studies and history from the University of Miami and a master's in international relations from American University. She graduated from the Louisiana State University School of Medicine, where she also did her internship in internal medicine and her residency in neurology.
Prior to practicing medicine, she worked in international relations and owned a foreign language instruction and translation company.
- What Is Dementia? Alzheimer’s Association.
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