How to Recognize the Alzheimers Stages


Alzheimers disease is generally thought to consist of three different stages of the illness, with a variety of symptoms that can appear with each stage. The intensity and severity of the symptoms will increase throughout the Alzheimers stages, ending with the most incapacitating symptoms that basically render the patient incapable of caring for himself. It is important to be familiar with the signs and symptoms of all of the Alzheimers stages, so that you can get an early diagnosis of the illness. This will help you to prepare better for what is to come, and perhaps manage the illness a bit more effectively. The early Alzheimers stage is sometimes the hardest to recognize, but there are key symptoms to watch for even at this early point.

First Stage

The first Alzheimers stage consists of symptoms like mild memory loss, lapses in judgment and subtle changes to the patients personality. You may see your family member develop a greater difficulty in remembering names and faces. In the course of a conversation, he may have more trouble with finding the right words, and he may even substitute completely different words for the ones that he is having difficulty remembering. You may see his temper flare as tasks and conversations become somewhat more challenging.

Middle Stage

This Alzheimers stage includes many of the symptoms that come to mind when you think of this disease. Your family member may begin to have difficulty recognizing family and friends, and he may confuse a brother with a nephew or a spouse with a cousin. You may notice that your family member asks repeatedly about the time of day or year, and that getting dressed becomes a much bigger challenge. You may see the patient put his shoes on the wrong feet or try to slip pajamas on over his clothing. This is also the Alzheimers stage where some patients begin to wander, leading to a great deal of concern and panic from family members when the patient cannot be located. Sometimes urinary and fecal incontinence become symptoms of this Alzheimers stage as well.

Final Stage

This Alzheimers stage is by far the most debilitating, and some patients cannot walk or even sit up without assistance. Incontinence is a frequent occurrence at this point, and eating becomes much more difficult as swallowing can cause choking. Your family member is probably not communicative at this Alzheimers stage, which means that you cannot tell at this point what your family member might want or need. This phase can be very difficult to manage, and is often when family members will place the patient into a full-time care facility.

Alzheimers is a difficult illness to deal with, both for the patient and family member caring for him. Recognizing the Alzheimers stages is the first step in managing this illness.

Www Alzheimers

Some of these indictors include: unsteadiness when walking; incontinence of urine; poor test scores on mental acuity tests; rapid decline during the first year they are diagnosed; wandering behaviors; and preexisting conditions such as heart disease or diabetes.

However, according to recent studies there are variations in the prognosis of different patients. Caregivers preferred this patch method to the previously used pill form, and the effects seemed to be better when using the patch. This is a chemical in the brain that is used for mental functions and plays a role in memory functions.

A patient in the early stages of Alzheimers may begin to put things in odd places, like his wallet in the dishwasher or socks in the refrigerator.
Although in some rare cases there are actually none at all, in most cases you will notice certain symptoms and so you should always keep an eye out for these types of signs and symptoms when you are older, especially if you are over the age of sixty. Doctors and nurses trained to address the needs of Alzheimers patients make up the staff at Alzheimers nursing homes and are better trained to meet their needs. This is perhaps the most important Alzheimers information of all, because if you are able to understand the structure of the disease then if you do have a loved one who is suffering from it you are able to understand how they are feeling as the disease progresses in their case. If you have elderly parents, aunts, uncles or grandparents, you want to be aware of what causes alzheimers disease, what the symptoms are, and how to recognize them. On the contrary, it involves many different types of tests and procedures to diagnose properly.

In fact, this is because it may not have any one cause at all.
The symptoms do not appear that obvious, and are sometimes associated with being too busy or just getting older. 9 million are over the age of 65. In addition, the Alzheimers medical alert bracelets can also be in the form of a piece of jewelry and need not necessarily is just a plain band of steel worn around your wrist.