Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease, that is to say, a disease that produces a destruction of neurons before the expected time. These neurons are located in certain areas of the brain, which are responsible for our memory, fluent language and the ability to recognize people and things.

It appears mainly in the later ages of life. It has been shown that between 65 and 70 years of age, 1% of the population of that age will have Alzheimer’s disease and every five years it doubles. So, from 70 to 75 years of age it is 2% of the population, from 75 to 80 years of age it is 4%, from 80 to 85 years of age it is 8% and from 85 to 90 years of age 16% of the population will have Alzheimer’s disease. From the age of 90 onwards, curiously, it decreases. It is believed that people over 90 years of age are very protected against this disease due to their genetic load.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

The initial signs of Alzheimer’s disease are memory disturbances, the patient forgets things and then is unable to remember them. Obviously, it is not the same as when we wonder where we have left our keys. The Alzheimer’s patient, in spite of giving clues or clues, is unable to remember.

There is a very important symptom that we call “executive dysfunction”, which in the clinic means that things that the patient used to know how to do, he/she now has great difficulty in doing. For example, it is very characteristic to see that before a patient knew how to cook a dish and now he/she has many difficulties to cook that dish.

It is also frequent that patients who used to do a certain task now either do not know how to do it or have a lot of difficulties to carry it out. That would be the most important piece of information to think that one may suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. In any case, anyone who suspects it should visit a neurologist who will perform the appropriate neurological tests to rule it out.

Read Now 👉  What are atypical parkinsonisms

The stages of Alzheimer’s disease

In the first phase, the patient usually has greater difficulty in verbal fluency, that is, difficulty in finding the exact words to express what one wants to say. They may also have greater difficulty in remembering not too important events that have occurred a few hours or a few days ago. This is the initial phase.

When the disease progresses over time, the language becomes less fluent, fewer words are used and more circumlocutions, the language is very poor in nouns. Progressively it is having more difficulty remembering dates (temporal disorientation).

Subsequently, a spatial disorientation appears. The patient gets lost in unusual places, but he knows them. Later, he ends up becoming disoriented in usual places until he ends up getting lost in his home.

In the most advanced phase, the patient may no longer be able to recognize his family, or even who he is.

Behavioral disorders such as agitation, aggressiveness, motor restlessness, changes in the wake-sleep cycle (at night they are awake and agitated and during the day they are asleep), are frequent symptoms of the disease and significantly alter family coexistence.

The neurologist can diagnose the patient, guide the family and improve everyone’s quality of life.