Health Talk

I have been talking about Alzheimer's disease all over this blog but I never had written a specific post for this disease. This post will give you a simple information about this incurable disease.

Alzheimer's Disease is the highest form of dementia among adults above 65 years. Unfortunately, this disease is a progressive type of mental illness and is untreatable. The term was derived from its creator, neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906. 

As of 2006, there were almost 27 million people that suffers from Alzheimer's disease and most of them are said to experience mild dementia in their middle age.  This disease develops in individuals differently with various symptoms and are caused by many factors.

The symptoms of this disease are often mistaken as age-related conditions or symptoms of stress. Difficulty in remembering recent events or names of close relatives are the significant signs of Alzheimer's disease. 

This mental sickness is also not caused by genetics. It is characterized by the loss of neurons and synapses in the cerebral cortex and other subcortical regions. This leads to the degeneration of cells in the temporal lobe and parietal lobe of the brain. This regions are easily identified through MRI imaging which shows visible reduction on its size. This results to cognitive impairment then progresses into a full blown Alzheimer's disease.

How to diagnose this mental illness? A brain scan is one of the ideal procedure to diagnose Alzheimer's disease. Brain doctors can also evaluate the patient's behavior and its mental capacity to diagnose any onset signs of this disease. This includes confusion, irritability, aggression, mood swings, speaking difficulty and long-term memory loss. 

There are four known stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Pre-dementia

The stage that are often mistakenly thought as aging process or stress-related symptoms. Mild cognitive difficulties are present through neuropsychological tests. 

Early AD

Learning and memory impairment is increasingly identified. Difficulties in language, perceptions or body movements are more prominent than memory loss. 

Moderate

The progressive stage of Alzheimer's disease where the memory loss worsens. Unable to perform daily activities which includes reading and speech impairment. Common signs are outbursts aggression, irritability, resistance to caregiving and many others. 

Advanced Alzheimer's disease

This stage is the most deadly state of AD patient. The sufferer is completely dependent on caregivers. Language is reduced to simple phrases to none. Muscle mass and the body's mobility is deteriorated which results in being bedridden. Infections and other organ complications are inevitable conditions for most advanced AD that will eventually lead to death.

Since Alzheimer's disease is untreatable, adequate care from close relatives are very important. Certain types of temporary management solutions are available to sustain proper memory functions. This can be in the form of pharmaceutical drugs, psychosocial and of course, caregiving. There is also no available prevention method for this disease and everyone are said to have a risk of developing this disease.

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