What Are the Potassium Treatments for Dementia?

According to the staff at the Mayo Clinic, dementia is not a specific disease, but a group of symptoms that significantly inhibit a person's mental and social functions. Dementia can have many causes, and recent research suggests that potassium may play a key role in healing certain kinds of dementia.

Types of Dementia

• There are three main types of dementia according to the Mayo Clinic staff: progressive dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia; dementia linked to other disorders such as HIV and Huntington's disease; and reversible dementia caused by infections, reactions to medications, nutritional deficiencies and more.

Vascular Dementia

• Vascular dementia occurs when there is not enough blood to nourish the brain.

  Vascular dementia occurs when there is not enough blood flow to the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic staff. Stroke is the most common cause of vascular dementia, but it can also be caused by atherosclerosis, extremely low blood pressure, brain hemorrhage or blood vessel damage.

Risk Factors for Vascular Dementia

• The Mayo Clinic staff considers the following to be risk factors for vascular dementia: increasing age, history of stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and atherosclerosis. High blood pressure is a risk factor because of the extra stress it puts on the blood vessels in your brain, according to the Mayo Clinic staff.

Potassium-Sparing Diuretics Reduce Dementia Risk

• Controlling high blood pressure with medication greatly reduces a person's dementia risk.

  In his book "The Alzheimer's Answer: Reduce Your Risk and Keep Your Brain Healthy," Dr. Marwan Sabbagh explains that potassium-sparing diuretics reduce a patient's risk of developing Alzheimer's by 70 percent. The study, performed in Utah's Cache County, compared different types of anti-hypertensive medications and concluded that potassium-sparing diuretics had the highest prevention rate.

Potassium Research Continues

• Scientists are working to discover the link between potassium and dementia. A 2006 study funded by the National Institutes of Health found a possible link between potassium channel mutations, brain degeneration and mental retardation.