Nutritional status, oxidative stress and dementia: the role of selenium in Alzheimer's disease

The term dementia derives from the Latin demens (“de”: private, “mens”: mind, intelligence, judgment—“without a mind”). The American Psychiatric Association (APA) describes it as “any mental impairment, or global cognitive decline in a previously unimpaired person” and is characterized by a deterioration of cognitive, intellectual, emotional, and behavioral skills, severe enough to interfere with the daily life of its sufferers (APA, 1994). It may be elicited by pathologies related to aging, stroke and mechanical injury, or by recurrent use of alcohol and substance abuse, including smoking (DeKosky et al., 2010; Rojas et al., 2010; Brown and Thore, 2011; Rusanen et al., 2011).