Description:
Learn useful information on Alzheimer's disease, signs, symptoms, memory loss, medication, treatment, and other related facts.
Contents:
Personality Changes of Alzheimer's
One of the most distressing aspect for the relatives and friends of the sufferers of Alzheimer's disease is the complete change of the patient's personality. The personality and general behavior of Alzheimer sufferers in the later stages of the disease often seems to be in complete contrast to the normal behavior they have always exhibited in their previous life.
A person suffering from Alzheimer's disease may suffer from rapid mood changes - from calm to tears to anger and rage - for apparently no reason. Their personality changes dramatically, by becoming extremely confused, suspicious, and fearful. Where they were independent before, they now become overtly dependent on a family member or a carer.
Home Environment for People with Alzheimers Disease
It's a well known fact by carers and professionals that Alzheimer sufferers are much happier in their own environment for as long as it is possible to keep them there. Once they are moved to a strange environment their acute confusion becomes much worse and more apparent to often distressed relatives and friends.
Disorientation inside the home can eventually become a problem though not until much later in the disease. This is why it's so important that absolutely nothing is moved or changed around in the home of someone who is suffering from Alzheimers disease. Moving furniture or their own items disorientates them and makes their confusion worse.
Compassionate Touch and Alzheimer's
For the person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who has lost memory, your compassionate touch may be the one thing with which he or she connects. Hold your loved one’s hands, give a gentle massage to his or her feet, legs, or arms. Even if the one suffering from Alzheimer’s does not recognize you and cannot communicate verbally, this is one way of reassurance and love. Alzheimer’s massage decreases physical agitation and improves sleep patterns in people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer's Food and Diet
Alzheimer’s sufferer will often forget or not bother to ask for a drink. As fluid is an integral part of anyone's diet, it is important that special attention is paid his or her adequate fluid intake. Drinks should be offered frequently and regularly and orange juice is one brilliant way of ensuring consumption of vitamin C.
There is a growing pool of evidence that suggests that what you eat is very important to your brain. A range of recent studies has reported a link between dietary habits and specific nutritional factors to the risk for Alzheimer's disease and/or cognitive decline.
Alzheimer's and Genetics
Dementia is a set of brain illnesses that damage a person's mental functioning, especially memory, thinking, and behavior. Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia. It is imperative that we understand the cause of Alzheimer’s disease for more effective and targeted treatments.
At least it is known that there is likely to be more than a single cause for Alzheimer’s and that it develops due to the biological processes in the brain. Research into Alzheimer’s cause has been enhanced by the discovery of genes associated with it. A person's genetic make up can directly influence the chances for the onset and development of Alzheimer's. A person's genes are inherited from their biological parents and passed along family lines to their biological children.
Types of Dementia
There are many different forms of dementia and each has its own causes. Alzheimer's Disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for between 50% and 70% of all dementias. The effects of the different types of dementia are similar, but not identical, as each one tends to affect different parts of the brain.
Vascular Dementia
Vascular Dementia is the second most common cause of dementia, after Alzheimer's disease. Previously, this form of dementia was known as multiinfarct dementia. Vascular Dementia is associated with problems in the circulation of blood to the brain causing a deterioration of mental abilities as a result of multiple strokes, or infarcts, in the brain. A stroke refers to the death of a piece of brain tissue because the blood vessels which supply it are blocked or interrupted.
These strokes may cause damage to specific areas of the brain responsible for speech or language as well as producing generalized symptoms of dementia. Therefore Vascular Dementia may produce similar symptoms to Alzheimer’s Disease. A mixture of Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia is a common cause of dementia, and it can sometimes be difficult to separate the two.
Alzheimers Associations
Alzheimers Associations - some useful web links that can provide a wealth of information about Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's Disease Medication
Modern drugs can help sooth agitation, anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness, and may also help boost participation in daily activities. Newer Alzheimer's Disease medications are also becoming available that can improve or preserve thinking skills, at least temporarily.
Alzheimer's Disease and Treatment
Even though no treatment can stop Alzheimer’s, for some people in the early and middle stages of the disease, the drugs tacrine (Cognex®), donepezil (Aricept®), rivastigmine (Exelon®), or galantamine (Razadyne®, formerly known as Reminyl®) may help prevent some symptoms from becoming worse for a limited time. Another drug, memantine (Namenda®), has been approved to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer’s, although it also is limited in its effects.
Alzheimer's Disease Causes
The research into the causes and possible cures for Alzheimer's Disease are very important areas of research. Understanding the causes should lead to more effective, targeted treatments and additional options for treating the disease in the future.
At this stage, scientists generally agree that there is unlikely to be a single clear cause for Alzheimer's. What is clear is that Alzheimer's develops as a result of a very complex cascade of biological processes that take place over many years inside the brain.
Alzheimer's Disease Info
Alzheimer's Disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of brain disorders that impair a person's mental functioning, especially memory, thinking, and behavior.
The term dementia literally means loss of mentation or thinking. Dementia is a broad term which describes the loss of memory, intellect, rationality, social skills and normal emotional reactions.
Alzheimer's Disease and Carer's Risk
Alzheimer’s disease is not a condition where one suffers alone. The patient, his family and those in his proximity suffer as well. In fact Alzheimer’s disease is associated with a significant amount of carer’s risk since the carer is exposed to a tiring and punishing schedule that exposes him to both physical and mental agony.
Elderly Like Alzheimer's Symptoms
Alzheimer’s disease manifests itself primarily in the deterioration of brain functions and its related side effects. One of the key elements is an appearance of acceleration of the brains’ aging process as gradual loss of brain functions. In this regard, the condition gives rise to “elderly like Alzheimer’s’ symptoms” as the brain functions slowly deteriorate.
Alzheimer’s Food Preference
Patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease often run into eating problems and in severe cases this may even border on malnutrition. There are a number of reasons why Alzheimer’s disease patients are very fussy about food texture and have very pronounced preference (if at all) for certain foods.
Improving Sleep for Alzheimer’s Patients
The slow degradation due to Alzheimer's disease also causes patients to suffer long term outcomes. Medication is most effective when treatement starts early and therefore it is essential to recognize Alzheimer’s disease as early as possible.
Alzheimer’s and Sexual Behaviour
Inappropriate sexual behaviour in a person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease can cause problems on occasion. As the Alzheimer’s disease progresses and the sufferer becomes more disabled, sexual activity usually declines naturally.
Alzheimer’s Long Term Outcome
The slow degradation due to Alzheimer's disease also causes patients to suffer long term outcomes. Medication is most effective when treatement starts early and therefore it is essential to recognize Alzheimer’s disease as early as possible.
Alzheimer’s Psychosocial Effects
One of the most distressing aspects of Alzheimer’s disease is the complete change of personality many people suffer. The personality and general behaviour of Alzheimer suffers in the later stages often seems to be in complete contrast to the usual behaviour they have always exhibited in their previous life.
Alzheimer’s Signs and Symptoms
Disorientation (or not knowing who or where you are or what day month etc it is), is very common in Alzheimer’s disease. It's also noted as one of the defining early symptoms, and as it is very closed connected with a person's memory or the ability to remember, it's not surprising.
Memory Loss and Alzheimer's
Memory loss occurs in all cases of Alzheimer’s, but in the early stages it can be difficult to detect as people manage to cover it up well. The most recent memories are the first to go, and it's only much later as the Alzheimer’s condition has become much more severe does the past memory become affected.
What is Alzheimer's Disease
Many of us are vaguely aware of the existence of a number of diseases of the brain. Of the many diseases that can afflict us, one is Alzheimer’s disease. What is Alzheimer’s disease? The term Alzheimer's disease refers to a condition discovered by a doctor called Alois The term Alzheimer's disease refers to a condition discovered by a doctor called Alois Alzheimer. In 1907, he wrote in medical textbooks about a woman of 51 who had died of dementia, whose brain he had examined under the microscope.
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