Alzheimer Information
Alzheimer’s Information
Unbelievably, one out of ten people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, in a recent statistic polls, almost 19 million Americans suffer one way or the other from this dreaded progressive disease. Below are some information that you will find useful about the disease.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative problem characterized by memory loss as well as loss in thinking skills. It is actually part of a constellation of memory and brain problems called dementia. It can lead to behavioral changes, loss of language skills, disorientation, confusion and increasing dependency. Most experts believe that Alzheimer’s is caused by a problem in the genetic make-up and is often associated with old age.
What are the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease?
What is however difficult with this problem is the fact that the onset of the disease will often manifest in symptoms often associated with forgetfulness when getting old. What separates this problem though is the fact that people with Alzheimer’s will eventually even forget normal routines and simple tasks. For instance, patients with Alzheimer’s can forget how to hold a spoon and fork while others will forget how to brush their teeth and take a bath. Believe it or not, some medical experts even say that some even forget hoe to breathe, something which comes quite naturally with a person.
One problem though with this is the fact that one can actually have no way of knowing whether it is ordinary forgetfulness or Alzheimer’s when it is just in the initial stages. It can start with ordinary forgetting of names and faces until it progresses to something major that can render the person totally incapacitated.
Who are affected by Alzheimer’s disease?
Although there are cases of Alzheimer’s that affected people in their 30s, most patients are over the age of 65 and a vast majority is over the age of 85. In addition to old age, experts believe that a family history of the same problem or of dementia may predispose someone to the disease. This is because experts pinpoint a defect in the genetic make up of the person who has Alzheimer’s disease.
People who are not much into mental pursuits or work that do not much involve mental strains will also most likely develop the disease compared to people who often stretch their mental muscles. In fact, one of the way to prevent the onset of dementia is to exercise the brain all the time especially during old age.
Even when one is already retired from work, old people should not forget to still use their minds by engaging in mental pursuits such as reading, answering crossword puzzles and even playing board games.
How do you diagnose Alzheimer's Disease?
As mentioned earlier, it is extremely difficult for a person to differentiate an ordinary case of forgetfulness and dementia at the beginning of the progression. Some of the symptoms of the disease such as slow mental processing and forgetfulness may be attributed to other problems such as thyroid gland problems, reactions to medications that are being taken, and even just a normal aging process.
To really ensure that the problem is indeed Alzheimer’s, doctors rule out other possibilities and conduct series of tests. The only way actually to conclusively determine the presence of Alzheimer’s is to examine a cross section of the brain tissue when a person is already dead.
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... 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. ...
... bingen. Dr. Alois Alzheimer presented his findings on a woman who had died after years of having memory problems and confusion. When Dr. Alzheimer autopsied the patient's brain, he found thick deposits of neuritic plaques outside and around the nerve cells. He also found a lot of twisted bands of fibers or neurofibrillary tangles inside the nerve cells. Today, medical specialists need to find the presence of the same plaques and tangles at autopsy in order to have a conclusive diagnosis that Alzheimer's disease indeed caused the disease. And due to this lecture and achievement in research and studies, ...
... administered to patients in just less than ten minutes, can also be completed on average of just seven minutes and forty three seconds. What makes the said test even more convenient is that it can be administered by any medical professional with just over an hour of basic training. The short time that it takes for completing the whole test is an attractive option for doctors who may not have the luxury of time when they are diagnosing patients with Alzheimer's. This type of test is just a part of a much larger effort by medical researchers to develop better ways of detecting Alzheimer's early. A ...
... What are the changes that need to be done to the home? The good news is, none. Those who are taking care of the patient should just be sure it is clean, clutter and noise free at all times. If the family members are busy with other things, an ad can be placed in the paper or someone can call the agency to have a caregiver look after the sufferer. These specialists are trained to give aid to the patient. What activities are done in the care facility? For starters, memory exercises will be done so the patient can still remember the names of the family members. A basic one will be through the use of ...
... the actual cause of Alzheimer's disease may not yet be known and still in the discovery stages, there are a number of risk factors that is known to increase the likelihood of Alzheimer development. Age is known as a risk cause of Alzheimer's disease. As a person ages, the likelihood that he or she will develop Alzheimer's also increases. The average age of diagnosis for Alzheimer's is about 80 years old. Gender is also seen as involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease, but studies for this may still be inconclusive. The reason as to why the risk is seen to be greater in women is that they ...