Symptoms of Alzheimers

Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and fatal brain disorder that damages and destroys brain cells, which causes memory loss, thinking complications, and can alter usual behavioral patterns.  It disallows the sufferer from functioning regularly, robbing them of the ability to do even the simplest of tasks that they might not have even had to think twice about before.

Within the United States alone, over five and half million people suffer from this fatal disease and is the seventh leading cause of death.  Because there is no cure, all one can do is learn to cope with the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease until it takes its final toll.  Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and is more than often associated with older age; those diagnosed with the disease can live anywhere from two to twenty years after the diagnosis, but because it gets progressively worse over time, most patients only usually live about three to five years after they’ve been diagnosed.

Recognizing the signs of oncoming Alzheimer’s is beneficial only in that early detection provides the sufferer and his/her family more time to find out more information and seek out resources for treatment of and coping with the disease.  Early recognition of the dementia stages will not aid in the prevention of the progression of the disease because it cannot be cured, but it can be treated with medication and therapy.

Although slight memory loss can be a normal symptom of aging, significant memory loss that impedes daily routines and functions can be a detector of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.  Forgetting information just recently acquired, important dates and events, and repetition of the same questions are not typical signs of aging and are usually associated with symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

If planning or solving problems, doing things as familiar as following a family recipe, driving to and from home, tracking usual monthly bills, or remembering the guidelines of a favorite game are also symptoms not typical of the usual aging process and are usually associated with signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

If there are changes in speech and vocabulary, if they stop in the middle of a sentence and cannot formulate the rest of the thought, forget the names of identifiable items, experience difficulty reading or lose sense of their depth perception, they are likely to be exhibiting signs of the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Another typical sign of someone experiencing the early stages of Alzheimer’s is if they begin misplacing things, putting things away in unusual places, setting things down and forgetting entirely where they’ve placed them, losing track of where they’ve been or where they need to go to find something.  This is associated with loss of temporary memory skills and is a sure sign of early Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

Sometimes they might even lose the ability to make accurate or fair judgments, and might even blame or accuse you of stealing or taking the things that they’ve lost.  Mood swings and irrational behavior, shifts in usual temperament and overall demeanor are also usual signs of progressing Alzheimer’s disease.

Sarah Danielson is a writer for Online Nursing Programs where you can browse the best online nursing programs in the country

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