The REAL Guide to Alzheimer's Disease

What is Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimers Disease is a slow disease, starting with mild memory problems and ending with severe brain damage.

The course the disease and how fast changes occur vary from person to person. On average, Alzheimers Disease patients live from 8 to 10 years after they are diagnosed, though the disease can last for as many as 20 years.

But Alzheimer's is far more than simple memory loss; it's the gradual, permanent tangling of the nerve fibers that surround the memory center of the brain. Alzheimer's begins with simple repeated memory loss, particularlv for reagent events, develops into obvious confusion, and ultimately causes troubling personality changes and a complete inability to communicate or survive independently.

A diagnosis of Alzheimer's is usually made by process of elimination, only an autopsy of the brain will reveal the definitive evidence,and it is important when suspecting Alzheimer's to eliminate other factors that can cause memory loss or behavior that mimics Alzheimer's.

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Some Facts About Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is:
• A frequent cause of irreversible brain failure (dementia) that accounts for more than 60 percent of all dementia cases.
• The fourth leading killer in the United States, behind heart disease, cancer and stroke.
• Generally, but not always, a disease of older people. The disease occurs in 10 percent of those over age 65 and 45 percent of those over age 85.
• A disease with symptoms that vary from patient to patient and from day to day in the same patient.
• a slowly progressing disease, averaging about eight years from the onset until death. The time can range from two to 20 years, depending on the age and other health factors of the individual.
Alzheimer’s disease is not:
• Insanity or “craziness.”
• Contagious.
• “Hardening of the arteries.” The disease associated with arteriosclerosis is stroke. Strokes are the second most common cause of brain failure.
• Willful disagreeableness by the impaired person. Sufferers are sometimes wrongly thought to be acting deliberately when they display annoying behavior.
• Simply the result of old age. Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are the result of a disease process, and though more common with advancing age, they are not a normal part of growing older.

The three Stages of Alzheimer's Disease

The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are grouped into three stages based on impairment of abilities:
Early stage (mild)
• Can still hold a job but has difficulty in demanding work situations
• Some short-term memory loss
• Suffers from occasional unjustified mood swings

Mid-stage (mild to moderate)
• Has difficulty performing complicated activities, such as handling finances
• Has difficulty selecting appropriate clothing
• Starts to lose social and language skills
• Irrational

Late stage (severe)
• Suffers from incontinence and loses bowel control; requires toilet assistance
• Cannot dress himself or herself
• Loses speech facilities
• Loses ambulatory ability

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Alzheimer's Disease Symptoms & Signs

In the early stages, the symptoms may be very subtle. Symptoms may often include:
• Repeating statements frequently
• Frequently misplacing items
• Trouble finding names for familiar objects
• Getting lost on familiar routes
• Personality changes
• Becoming passive and losing interest in things previously enjoyed

Some tasks that the person usually does well can become difficult at this stage. Examples of these are balancing a checkbook, playing complex games (such as bridge), and learning new and complex information or routines.

In a more advanced stage, the deficits are more obvious. Some of the symptoms are:
• A decrease in knowledge of recent events
• Forgetting events in life history, essentially losing awareness of who you are
• Problems choosing proper clothing
• Hallucinations, arguments, striking out, and violent behavior
• Delusions, depression, agitation

Some tasks that are likely to present difficulty for a person at this stage are: preparing meals, driving, dressing, travel outside of familiar routes, and managing finances.

In severe AD, a person can no longer survive without assistance. Most people in this stage no longer understand language, they no longer recognize family members, and they can no longer perform basic activities of daily living (such as eating, dressing, and bathing).

Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Although there is hope that Alzheimer's disease may one day be more fully understood, and thereby prevented, science does not yet know what can be done to arrest the mental deterioration.

Even diagnosis of the disease is not a precise science. There are tests that can suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimer's and that can rule out other problems as the cause of symptoms, but there currently is no single laboratory procedures or biochemical marker that can definitively confirm the disorder in a living person.

Because dementia can be a symptom of many disorders, a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is usually made when all other possibilities have been eliminated.

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Caring for Alzheimers' Sufferers

At present there are no Alzheimers treatments that will prevent or reverse the onset of Alzheimers or its progression.Physicians understand the disease much more, and they use medical Alzheimers treatment to treat many of the disease symptoms.

Effective Alzheimers treatments are not far off. It is important to consult with a qualified physician to eliminate some symptoms that mimic true Alzheimers to distinguish between the many causes of dementia, some of which are completely treatable.

Alzheimers treatments are available that help improve the quality of life for Alzheimer sufferers even though there is no cure to prevent the disease. More drugs and associated genes have been discovered that may lead to new Alzheimers treatments in order to halt the progression of this complex disease. Although there is no cure currently for the disease, the primary Alzheimer treatment is medication as well as concerned care giving.

Current medications for Alzheimers treatment cannot reverse the disease process, but they may slow down the disease and lessen the symptoms. Alzheimers treatment is still in its infancy, but researchers are confident that in the not too distant future, medications will successfully treat Alzheimers symptoms.

In addition to the search for better ways to deal with Alzheimers treatment, a number of natural therapies are being explored. Foods containing Vitamin E and other antioxidants have also been the focus of study for Alzheimers treatment. Stem cell research concerning bone marrow transformation to neural cells have created optimism into future Alzheimers treatment.

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