Getting To Know About Alzheimers

Did you know that Alzheimer's disease is an incurable progressive disease? It involves the loss of cognitive and behavioral functions in the individual who develops the disease. Those who suffer...

Did you know that Alzheimer’s disease is an incurable progressive disease? It involves the loss of cognitive and behavioral functions in the individual who develops the disease. Those who suffer from it and those who love them are totally devastated by the affects of the symptoms. Individuals with the disease are totally robbed of most of their memories, not even knowing whom spouses, sons or daughters are by the time the disease progresses into the last stage of Alzheimer’s. Getting to know about Alzheimer’s takes you into a very scary journey.

As you get to know the disease you will discover that there are several stages to Alzheimer’s (mild, moderate and the severe stage). At the final stage of the disease, the individual will have lost all control over his or her cognitive, behavioral and even physical bodily functions. The individual will not be able to swallow, or have control over bladder or bowel functions. The individual becomes unaware of time, place or the people around them.

In the mild stage of the disease, individuals first become confused about places that are usually familiar to them. They may have difficulty completing common household tasks or assignments at work that they have usually done with ease. They often misplace familiar objects like car keys or wallets, even medication bottles and not know where they placed them because often times items are put away in very odd places.

In the mild stage they may also notice a decline in their ability to come up with the word they are searching for while speaking or writing. As they head towards the moderate stage, they may lose the ability to remember how to bath, dress or do simple household tasks like how to prepare a meal, and what steps are involved in doing anything that has to be planned out such as preparing the things one would do in order to feed the dog (get out the food, dish, pour the food, place the dish on the floor). They forget the order of doing things. This makes it difficult to do most things at a job or complex tasks such as balancing a checkbook or making out a shopping list. The decline in cognitive abilities makes doing things like shopping for meals, preparing meals, banking and handling financial obligations like paying bills on time difficult. The result is they seldom eat nutritious meals because they are not able to get all the right ingredients or all the food groups while shopping, and they forget the right way to cook so they may stop eating anything but food they can grab and eat. They may also over pay for purchases because they cannot remember how to make change. They forget to pay utilities and end up with being disconnected for these vital services.

Alzheimer’s is a serious disease because if they live alone this cognitive decline can become dangerous as they forget how to get back home when out for a walk, or they forget to turn off the stove and a fire starts. They can drive around once familiar streets right in their own neighborhood as they easily confuse the name of streets or where different streets should be in relation to their home or place of work.

Perhaps the most devastating to family members and other loved ones is that they soon forget names of those recently introduced to, and they start to experience behavioral changes such as becoming increasingly angry, or have inappropriate behaviors in public like masturbating while in a store. Behaviors they would never normally do. A quiet, well-mannered individual may suddenly become someone who yells profanity as the disease progresses.

The confusion an individual feels as they struggle with the mild to early moderate stages of Alzheimer’s can make them stressed out, uncertain about where they are or what they are to do. It can be frightening to not be able to find your way back home. It is important for those who live with or are in close contact with those in the mild and moderate stages of Alzheimer’s to notice these changes and encourage them to visit a doctor for a diagnosis.

Getting to know about Alzheimer’s disease is something that can be scary, and emotional for both the patient and family members.

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