Alzheimer's is an extremely debilitating disease. Presently, there are no known cure or treatment for this irreversible threat to a mature person's mental and personal health. Once a person has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the duration and course of the disease will vary from five up to twenty years.
Within the course of the disease, the sufferer will go through a whole range of deterioration from slight short term memory loss to the loss of normal bodily functions that cause complications and infections that then turns into death.
While the prospect of Alzheimer's disease is truly grim, there continues to be steady breakthroughs from experts that help hope persist that eventually, prevention and cure for Alzheimer's may be found. Before that though, there are lot of questions to be answered and the race to find the cure continues.
Despite this, it is important to take note of the early signs of Alzheimer's, for friends loved ones and yourself. Taking note of the early signs of Alzheimer's will help everyone involved prepare and understand all that is entailed in arranging for care and what to expect as the illness progresses.
It is important to be on the lookout for early signs of Alzheimer's if you or someone you care for is nearing the age of 65 or if there is known cases al Alzheimer's in the family.
Below are some early signs of Alzheimer's to look out for.
Downscale
While memory loss is commonly mentioned as the one of the early signs of Alzheimer's, it has been noted that unexplained and sudden weight loss usually occurs within individuals who suffer from Alzheimer's. They have found that the weight loss happens way before any actually memory loss begins.
If you or someone you care about begins to lose weight unexpectedly, consult your doctor for probable cause and if there are no reasons found then you should have tests for Alzheimer's done.
Forgetfulness
The most common early sign of Alzheimer's is the loss of short term memory. More often than not, at the very early stages, this short term memory loss often goes unnoticed so it is important to pay close attention and see if it is normal memory loss or is it an early sign of Alzheimer's.
While everyone will forget something once in a while, but Alzheimer's sufferer never recall back what has been lost. So pay attention for peculiar incidences of short term memory loss that result in the distress, however much slight, in everyday routine.
Disability
Alzheimer's will rob one of the ability to do the things that used to come second nature to them. It is as if the individual with Alzheimer's can no longer remember or are familiar with tasks or actions that used to be part of their everyday routine. Watch out for this telltale sale that is quite an indicator included in the early signs of Alzheimer's disease.
More Changes
Another early sign of Alzheimer's is the increasing problem of communication. Often, people with Alzheimer's will have a difficult time communicating because they begin to lose their ability to handle language. They begin to forget simple words and terms and their sentence construction begin to be difficult to understand.
There can also be a change in behavior or mood that is not normal for the person with Alzheimer's disease. Over and above moodiness, a person with Alzheimer's can switch moods or behavior without reason.