Alzheimer's Disease and Its Symptoms

Alzheimer's disease, also known as the most common form of dementia, is named after the German neurologist Dr. Alois Alzheimer who first identified the disease in 1907. The main concern with Alzheimer's disease is that it allows the rapid degeneration of healthy brain tissue associated with cognitive abilities such as judgment, comprehension and memory.

The root cause of this phenomenon in Alzheimer's disease remains unclear and is still under study. This degeneration of the brain tissues causes a steady decline in memory as well as a steady loss of essential mental abilities responsible for thought, memory, and language. More than four million of the older population in the US is known to be stricken with Alzheimer's disease. The number of people suffering from this debilitating condition is expected to triple within the next 20 years.

The most common symptoms of Alzheimer's are loss of memory, the decline of intellectual functions and sudden changes in personality. At the first stages of the disease, symptoms exhibited are patients becoming easily tired, upset and anxious.

With Alzheimer's disease the changes that happen may be gradual over time and not so sudden. But as the disease progresses, so does the Alzheimer's symptoms as they accelerate and become more serious and noticeable enough for the people involved to seek help. The usual course of the disease can take anything from five to ten years, from how the Alzheimer's symptoms develop from simple forgetfulness to showing up as severe dementia.

On the part of the patient, the initial Alzheimer's symptom that can be very frightening is the realization that something is happening to their memory. Although simple forgetfulness is not the only Alzheimer's symptom to look for, but it reaches the degree as even forgetting the names of people that the patient sees often, then the condition is a possible Alzheimer's symptom. The Alzheimer's symptom starts off with slight memory loss and confusion. It then ultimately leads to severe and irreversible mental impairment if left to develop without any form of initial treatment.

The Alzheimer's symptom will further lead to degeneration of a person's ability to remember, reason, learn and even imagine. The Alzheimer's symptom of forgetfulness can include the names of family members being forgotten as well as familiar everyday objects such as a comb and mirror.

Another possible symptom of the disease include difficulty experienced with abstract thinking. This symptom initially begins with typically mundane everyday things like not balancing a check book and may further develop into not understanding and recognizing numbers.

Difficulty finding the right word can also be an Alzheimer's symptom that challenges the patient with finding the correct words for expression. It will eventually lead to a diminished ability to follow conversations and further progress to affect one's reading and writing skills.

Disorientation with time and dates is also an evident symptom of Alzheimer's, even further deteriorating to the degree as to frequently losing themselves in even very familiar surroundings.

Loss of judgment is an Alzheimer's symptom that prevents the patient from solving everyday problems and doing simple tasks like cooking on the stove. This Alzheimer's symptom in its extreme form will lead to difficulty with anything that requires planning, decision-making and judgment.

Personality change is an Alzheimer's symptom that presents itself as the gradual development of mood swings, distrust, stubbornness and eventual withdrawal from the patient's usual social circle. Depression is also a coexistent Alzheimer's symptom alongside with growing restlessness. In its severe form, the Alzheimer's symptom further develops into anxiety, aggressiveness and inappropriate behavior.

Understanding Alzheimers Better

Alzheimers information is important for individuals who may be at the first stages of this disease. However, it is also very important for friends, family and caregivers of people with Alzheimers disease to have enough Alzheimers information to be able to understand the process of the progression of the disease as well as what to expect and what is the best care and treatment for this.

To understand Alzheimers more, we need to look at and understand dementia. Dementia is a mental disorder characterized by the loss of cognitive abilities. It is an extremely debilitating disease that afflicts some individuals in their old age. Alzheimers information shows that Alzheimers disease is the most common form of this disorder that greatly impairs normal mental operations.

There is no certain prevention or cure for Alzheimers disease right now but continuous studies and tests are being made toward this endeavor because according to Alzheimers information, this disease is irreversible. The disease also continues to progress into different stages and symptoms of this worsen over time.

One of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimers is short term memory loss.  It then progresses into a gradual decline of other cognitive abilities. After the disease has progressed further, one may notice a marked change in the sufferer's behavior and at the very last stages of the disease, the individual with Alzheimers will have to depend on others for simple activities such as eating and mobility.

Alzheimers information tells us that the course of the disease varies from person to person with a range of five to twenty years. Alzheimers eventually ends in death due to complications and infections.

Although more and more Alzheimers information has been collated and researched throughout the years, the progress has been steady but slow. For instance, the Alzheimers information on what causes the disease is still uncertain. There are some major hypotheses that seem to revolve around two factors: genetic or hereditary and a complex environmental interaction.

Alzheimers information shows us that it is primarily a disease that affects the brain. It is in the abnormalities in the brain that result in massive atrophy of the brain's neurotransmitters, nerves and neurons. From these stem the malfunctions that begin with short term memory loss to sever impairment to memory and the loss of motor skills and other normal bodily functions.

An abnormally large deposit of protein in the brain causes the massive atrophy. The absolute detection of Alzheimers can only really be done post mortem through an autopsy where the brain is examined and it shows a significant amount of shrinkage and a smoothening of the usual brain wrinkles.

However, one need not wait for an autopsy to find out whether one is suffering from Alzheimers disease or not. With modern Alzheimers information, one can have an 85 % to 90% accuracy in the diagnosis of the disease. No laboratory tests are done.

Instead, there will be some cognitive tests and with a series of exercises and questions that are crossed checked against other possible sources of dementia. These mental tests done to be able to diagnose Alzheimers help also by letting the physician know at which stage of progression the sufferer may be at.

Individuals with the age of 65 and above are most likely to be at risk of Alzheimers.

What Exactly is Alzheimer’s?

As uncommon as the name of the disease sounds, its prevalence and incidence rates are not. In fact, almost four million people in the United States are affected by this problem. All can be affected, men or women, across all social status and economic position in life.

Alzheimer’s is a progressive and degenerative problem under the umbrella of diseases called dementia. It is characterized by disorientation and impaired memory. It is apparently caused by an attack in the brain, affecting one’s memory, thinking skills and judgment. Most patients will experience a change in language ability, in the way they use their mental processes and of course their behavior. 

While anybody can be affected by this problem, only those that are older than age 65 experience the lagging in their thinking skills. Still, there are some who gets Alzheimer’s even when they are just 30 years old but these cases are very rare and can only account for a small percentage of the total number of cases. One out of 10 people over the age 65 has Alzheimer’s and nearly half of these patients are over 85 years old. In a national survey conducted in the United States, almost 19 million Americans have one family member who suffers from this dreaded problem.     

In addition to old age, family history of dementia can also predispose someone to the disease. This is because Alzheimer’s is said to be caused by a problem in the genetic mutations. Still, when you study the cases, Alzheimer’s is commonly the result of a host of other factors besides genes. In fact, environmental factors such as hobbies and mental pursuits are things that can help prevent the onset of the problem.   

What is difficult with Alzheimer’s is the fact that its symptoms are basically the same with ordinary signs of old age. At the beginning, there will be some memory loss. The person with Alzheimer’s will also experience confusion and disorientation even with things that they are used to doing. The trick is to make sure that one can recognize what a normal memory loss is against something of Alzheimer’s caliber. 

Often, there will be a gradual memory loss. They will find it hard to read or to write or to think clearly. After which they will experience a decline in the ability to perform tasks that are already automatic and routinary. Believe it or not, in cases that are already in the terminal stage, the patient may even forget how to brush their teeth or how to use a spoon and fork, something that is really pretty basic with a lot of people.

This is one example of the difference of Alzheimer’s from ordinary memory loss. Forgetfulness will not affect tasks that are routinary. There will also be difficulty in learning new things and in memorizing things. Some patients may even forget the language that they are speaking with while others will no longer recognize their family. Personality will change in terms of the way they communicate with other people and the way they behave.

There is actually no change in personality per se but because of the problems in their memory, they may appear aloof and suspicious perhaps because they cannot recognize the people that they know before. Some may even become extremely fearful and passive for the simple fact that they cannot remember you. As the disease worsens, the patient will then become so incapable of taking care of themselves that they will require help even in eating and in sleeping.