Symptoms of Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia (mental deterioration of memory and thought processes) among the elderly. It is estimated that 4.5 million Americans over the age of 65 are affected with this condition. After the age of 65, the incidence of the disease doubles every five (5) years and, by age 85, it will affect nearly half of the population.Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously affects a person’s ability to carry out daily activities. The most common form of dementia among older people is Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which initially involves the parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language. Although scientists are learning more every day, right now they still do not know what causes AD, and there is no cure.
Symptoms of Alzheimer’s
1. Become confused, and frequently forget the names of people, places, appointments and recent events. Experience mood swings. They may feel sad or angry. They may feel scared and frustrated by their increasing memory loss.
2. Confusion about time and place (difficulty recognizing familiar neighborhoods or remembering how arrived at a location, confusion about months or seasons ). Impaired judgement (dressing inappropriately or making poor financial decisions)
3. Is it Alzheimer’s or just normal aging? We all forget things as we age. Mild forgetfulness is normal. More serious memory problems can make independent living difficult. Read about the steps you can take to help your memory.
4. When Alzheimer’s disease begins to destroy brain cells, no outward symptoms are evident. After a while, small memory lapses appear and grow more serious. The afflicted individual may forget the names of familiar people or places, the words to express what they want to say, or the location of everyday objects.
5. Researchers and doctors use a number of scales to measure the progression of symptoms over time, which may define as many as seven distinct stages of the disease. For general purposes, three broad phases are typically recognized: mild, moderate and severe. The symptoms commonly seen in each stage are summarized below, but it’s important to realize that there may be some overlap among the stages, and that people may not experience all of these symptoms.
Warning Signs
1. Memory loss. Forgetting recently learned information is one of the most common early signs of dementia. A person begins to forget more often and is unable to recall the information later.
2. Loss of judgment. Solving everyday problems, such as knowing what to do if food on the stove is burning, becomes increasingly difficult, eventually impossible. Alzheimer’s is characterized by greater difficulty in doing things that require planning, decision making and judgment. No one has perfect judgment all of the time but those with Alzheimer’s disease may dress without regard to the weather, wearing several shirts or blouses on a warm day or very little clothing in cold weather. Individuals with dementia often show poor judgment about money, giving away large amounts of money to telemarketers or paying for home repairs or products they don’t need.
