And the final thing about dementia -- it is incurable at the moment, degenerative, and fatal. (Not just that someone without dementia would be able to fight off certain infections better, but eventually the dementia patient stops taking nutrition and water.) So we make different medical decisions about someone with dementia than someone without a fatal and degenerative diagnosis. And it's sometimes hard for someone who is doing daily caregiving to assess where their loved one is on the slow slide into complete incapacity, because you see them every day and maybe you don't realize that they've stopped smiling until someone with fresh perspective comes in and tells you that no, it's severe now.

(My estranged father died of dementia; my mother was his caregiver until the end.)