While often incorrectly considered a disease, dementia actually refers to a group of symptoms which negatively affect memory and social abilities, resulting in an interference with daily functioning. Primarily, problems with memory and impaired judgment or language are the two major areas affected by dementia.  However, numerous other causes and symptoms of dementia exist, which can make diagnosis and treatment difficult or even impossible. But now, health researchers have found that nearly 47 million people are living with dementia globally which is a major increased from 35 million in 2009. The question is why is this increasing so rapidly? They warned that there hasn't been a medical breakthrough and the numbers will likely continue to grow every 20 or so years.