Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia especially for aging men. Dementia is the loss of mental abilities some that include memory and reasoning abilities. Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease getting worse as it develops.

Though it mainly affects the aging, it can affect the young too. It is most common in people over the age of 65, affecting around 1 in 20 people. For those over 80 years of age, it affects one in five.

The disease attacks nerves and brain cells as well as neurotransmitters. The destruction of the cells causes clumps of protein to form around the brain’s cells. These clumps start to destroy more connections between the cells, making the condition worse.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

One of the biggest challenges with Alzheimer’s disease is that it is still difficult to diagnose. Its symptoms are similar to other conditions and no case of the disease is ever the same. There are stages that are common in the disease and these are

Mild Alzheimer’s Disease

This includes a gradual loss of brain function, such as poor memory and confusion. This may lead to people thinking that the symptoms are just old age and forgetfulness. Symptoms of mild Alzheimer’s include:

• Memory loss,
• Forgetfulness
• Confusion
• Mood swings and
• Problems with speech

Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease

As it slowly progresses, it can cause symptoms such as:

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Incontinence
• Obsessive or repetitive behavior
• Disturbed sleep
• Experiencing something that never happened

Problems with language and speech start developing and the patient feels frustrated and depressed leading to mood swings. It becomes difficult to remember recent things.

Severe Alzheimer’s Disease

At this stage, the person with Alzheimer’s will start neglecting their personal hygiene and will probably need full time care. It is at this stage when the disease becomes challenging to family members as the person may forget them, hear, smell and see things that are not there. Symptoms include

• Difficulty swallowing
• Loss of appetite or weight
• Increased vulnerability to infection
• Complete loss of short term and long term memory

What is the Treatment for Alzheimer’s?

There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s. There are drugs available to slow memory retardation. Use of vitamin E and ginkgo biloba have been tried.

Treatment involves caring for the symptoms like depression and techniques to aid memory. Full time residential care may be required in the later stages of the disease.

Can Alzheimer’s be Prevented?

Research is still on going on how to prevent the disease. Since the symptoms are different from one case to another, and there is no known definitive cause, it becomes difficult to figure out how to prevent it. Healthy living is still encouraged with a healthy diet in anti-oxidants, fish oil, regular exercise and taking cholesterol lowering statin drugs is recommended.

Alzheimer’s disease is difficult even for family members. For the person affected, memory loss can be very depressing. In the later stages, it can be hurtful to see you’re loved once going through dementia.

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