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Causes Of Alzheimer's Disease

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Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s disease is a terrible disease that most likely affects the elderly after the age of 60. Most people have heard about Alzheimer’s and how this disease affects one’s memory and their ability to carry out daily activities. Although scientists know how this disease affects the brain, they are still unsure of the cause of Alzheimer’s. In 2013, it was said that as many as five million people were living with this disease (Alzheimer’s Disease). These five million individuals have to struggle every day to carry out everyday activities and to know that there isn’t a cure is devastating. Learning more about this disease and learning how to deal with it is very important for caregivers and families. As many know, the …show more content…

The first stage is also known as the mild Alzheimer’s. In this stage, a person can still function independently and just has some memory issues and can forget familiar words. During this stage certain difficulties would be; problems coming up with words, trouble with names, misplacing valuables, and some trouble at performing tasks. The second stage, which is known as moderate Alzheimer’s, is the longest stage. This stage can last for many years and keeps progressing, causing the person to need more care. During this stage the nerve cells in the brain become effected and it makes it harder for the person to express their thoughts and harder to perform everyday actions. The second stage can cause the individual to feel moody, forget important events of their history, confused about the time of day or what month it is, and increased risk of getting lost. The last stage, which is known as severe Alzheimer’s, is when the person usually experiences worse memory loss and their cognitive skills start to suffer. Individuals in the last stage of Alzheimer’s will require full-time help, they will have a difficult time speaking, will require assistance with everyday tasks, and will lose awareness of everything that is going on around them …show more content…

In a scholarly article written by Wayne McCormick, it discusses the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The study used patients that were in the University of Washington Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Registry. In the study, they took individuals who were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and individuals who did not have disease like Alzheimer’s or dementia. The study took place to see if when the elderly start to complain about memory problems, if that can be useful in an early evaluation of having Alzheimer’s. After the study, results showed that symptoms of cognitive impairment were evident at an average of six months in 95% of the cases, 77% were in non-demented cases and 6% was in the control cases. People with Alzheimer’s disease do complain of symptoms clearly related to cognitive impairment early in the course of illness, but may under-report common symptoms not suggestive of cognitive impairment, even though their comorbidity is similar to patients without dementia

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