Royane Real
Symptoms And Stages Of Alzheimer's Disease
By: Janie Jonah
Introductory comments by Royane Real
Author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative”
Did you know that your brain is changing all the time? Some of the changes to our aging brain are slow and normal, but sometimes the changes are dramatic and may be cause for alarm.
Around the age of fifty, many people find that they have difficulty remembering things, especially things that happened just a few minutes ago. The process of making and retrieving short term memories doesn’t work as well as it used to. Usually these "senior moments" are nothing serious, they just indicate a slow down in the brain's processing systems. A slightly fuzzy memory is a normal part of the aging process.
However, in some cases, a poor short term memory is a sign of something far more ominous. Poor short term memory can be an early symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, or one of the other forms of dementia. In Alzheimers disease, the brain cells that are needed to form memories and to think are gradually destroyed, leaving a mess of plaques and tangles in the cells of the brain.
No one really knows what causes Alzheimers disease, and so far we don’t know how to stop it, although research is progressing quickly in this area.
The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias increases with age. That means that with millions of baby boomers entering their more senior years, there is an epidemic of Alzheimers that is about to hit many societies, including the United States.
Can anything be done to stop Alzheimer’s disease once it happens? So far we don’t know how to stop it, but there are some medications that can slow it down.
What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease? As you can see in the article below, Alzheimer's generally progresses in stages.
One of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s is a slight but noticeable decrease in short term memory. Unfortunately, many people as they enter their fifties and sixties suffer from a slow down in memory due to normal brain aging. It can be very difficult to tell the difference in the early stages between memory problems due to normal aging, and memory problems due to Alzheimer’s or one of the other dementias.
What should you do if you are concerned about memory loss? The best thing to do is to get a referral to see a qualified medical specialist who deals with memory and brain aging. It’s quite likely that your regular family doctor won’t be extremely knowledgeable in this area.
The following article by author Janie Jonah describes some of the changes that happen as the disease of Alzheimer’s progresses.
( The above introductory comments were written by Royane Real, author of the author of the book “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” Download it today and learn more ways to get the maximum use of your brainpower. It’s available at http://www.lulu.com/real )
Feature article:
Symptoms And Stages Of Alzheimer's Disease
By: Janie Jonah
Alzheimer's is a disease that develops very slowly over a number of years. Some of these changes occur in the brain long before any noticeable symptoms of Alzheimer's present. Alzheimer's stages have been identified or classed using documentation of patients, to analyze and discover patterns that occur frequently in those that suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's is caused by damage or degeneration that occurs to nerve cells. Typically, these nerve cells are associated with memory and learning. These symptoms indicate only the beginning or early stage of Alzheimer's disease. The degeneration slowly spreads to other cells that control other aspects of a person's mental functioning, such as behaviour, judgement and thinking.
With behaviour impairment, cells that control and coordinate movement are eventually damaged too. People diagnosed with Alzheimer's live for an average of 8 years after diagnosis, but because of the fact that the stages of impairment are something of a guideline and are not definitive in a way that one would expect some thing to pass completely from one stage to the next, and the fact that the symptoms will vary from person to person, some sufferers can live for anything from 3 to 20 years after diagnosis.
The symptoms of Alzheimer's are generally grouped into 3 main stages. These stages are mild, moderate and severe.
Symptoms of the Mild stage of Alzheimer's Disease
Difficulty learning or storing new information in memory. Loses memory of recent events or things, and has difficulty finding words while communicating with others, and may revert to word substitution instead. A shortening attention span along with having difficulty thinking logically or being organized. Poor judgement and a lack of interest about money matters is also common. Misplacing commonly used items such as car keys.
Once on the road they can have difficulty finding their way around familiar places. They do not like anything new and therefore often resist change. Because of the lack of recent memories they also ask repetitive questions. They also find it difficult making decisions and become irritable and angry when frustrated or tired.
Symptoms of the Moderate stage of Alzheimer's Disease.
Sufferers may hear, see or taste things that are not actually there, a form of psychosis. They can become suspicious of family members’ motives along with close friends and familiar people.
This can lead to them not being able to recognize familiar people and also have trouble with or confused over issues of ownership, such as not being able to recognize whom objects belong too. Often mistaking other's for their own. They can forget parts of story telling and sometime will make up imaginary events simply to complete the story or fill in parts that they can not remember.
Their personal appearance may change as they having difficulty falling asleep and tend to neglect person hygiene, due to memory loss. They can become confused about the people they meet and will often mistake or mix up relatives, thinking that their brother is actually their son, for example.
They may often find themselves awaking in the middle of the night believing it is morning time and they begin to ready themselves for work and the day ahead. They may need help using the toilet, showering and dressing appropriately. They can develop poor judgement which can be extremely dangerous if they are left alone unsupervised. They can also have difficulty following instructions or reading, which makes it extremely difficult for them to follow or complete educational or mental pursuits.
Symptoms of the Severe stage of Alzheimer's Disease
Patients in the severe stages of Alzheimer's sometimes end up sleeping more than is usual. They may have difficulty eating. This can occur by simply refusing to eat meals, to forgetting to swallow, and thereby risk choking. These symptoms can lead to significant weight loss along with the thinning of the skin.
In the severe stage of Alzheimer's they often can not recognize themselves, their partner, close friends and family. Their speech becomes incoherent, often talking nonsense or becoming completely mute.
They lose their mobility and need help walking or standing as they can not do this on their own being weak and often frail. This help unfortunately, may make them uncomfortable and cause them to cry out when touched.
In the severe stage they may have seizures and will then require constant assistance and care for all daily activities. This can be due to the loss of bladder and bowel control. Sometimes patients will exhibit repetitive behaviour such as touching or patting everything.
Article source: http://www.thereprintsite.com
Janie Jonah Canadian Prescription Pharmacy Online (c) 2006, PerfectDrugRx. All rights in all media reserved.
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