Alzheimer is a well-known disease around the world as the “memory loss” sickness. Most people don’t know that it is a neurodegenerative disease; that apart from generating memory loss, it also damages other mental capacities.
The average time of living when someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer is around 10 years (less than 3% of patients live more than 14 years), it has to be mentioned that this disease is terminal and has no cure. Of course, the time of living can vary depending on the person, the age in which a person was diagnosed, and the severity of the disease when diagnosed.
It particularly affects people over 65 years old but there have been cases where people get diagnosed at 40 years old. Before a diagnosis you have to check the symptoms, sometimes those are just effects of stress and old age.
In this article, it will be mentioned the symptoms and different stages of the disease.
Symptoms of the “memory loss” Disease
It is regular that we often forget some things, like our keys, phones, and the name of someone we just met. There is nothing bad about it; in fact, plenty of studies have suggested that people who often forget little things have a good mental health. But, a person who suffers from Alzheimer has this occasions way more often.
An example of this could be that we forget our mobile phones somewhere; a person who is diagnosed with Alzheimer can put the phone in an unusual place like a microwave, and even forget what a phone is for.
Among the symptoms of Alzheimer we can find:
- Personality changes, the person might act more aggressively or more passively.
- Low energy levels, reluctance to do anything.
- The most common one, memory loss.
- Issues to walk or movement capacity in general.
- Problems of communication, the person has difficulties to express and communicate.
If these problems got worse with the pass of time, you should contact an expert to diagnose whether the person has or not the disease.
Stages of Deterioration
Like many terminal diseases, Alzheimer has different stages of deterioration; the gravity of the disease may vary depending on the person and the age.
Stage 1 (Mild)
In this stage, the principal symptoms show up, memory and energy loss, difficulties to communicate and talk notion loss, and difficulties to learn new things.
Stage 2 (Moderate)
In this stage the person may have problems to remember the date, hour, and the place in which they are, they can make up words to replace the words they have forgotten, and start to forget people they used to know.
Stage 3 (Advanced)
This stage is the hardest one for both patient and family members; people in this stage forget their physiological needs, how to eat and swallow, and the capacity of recognition. They are more vulnerable to other sicknesses and sadly pass the last of their days on a bed.
