Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that usually occurs after age 60; Unfortunately, with the knowledge we have now, there is no cure for the disease; their progression can be slow at first: people start having trouble remembering certain things and then have more severe memory loss to the point of not recognizing family members. At this stage of the disease, people become dependent on others.
In the early stages of this disorder certain parts of the brain begin to be affected that control thought, memory and language, so although it may seem that Alzheimer’s disease occurs silently, the truth is that there are certain signs that can reveal its presence, even when they are not very obvious.
- The risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease is higher when there are family members who have had Alzheimer’s disease.
It is normal that we sometimes forget the keys to the house, pay a bill or other everyday situation, however, in people who are starting to develop Alzheimer’s disease this happens much more often and can sometimes be dangerous.
For example, they can leave the gas inadvertently, subjecting them to the risks involved; In the same way, you can leave a baked cake and forget to take it out; they can also forget how to prepare simple meals and even how to serve them. In other words, don’t you remember how to organize the dishes, the towels, how to place the cutlery?
Gradually, Alzheimer’s disease causes certain limitations that prevent the execution of the simplest and most insignificant daily tasks.
At some point in our lives we have already experienced the phenomenon we know as ‘at the tip of the tongue’, but this everyday phenomenon, which refers to an information-seeking problem, may have a more serious meaning for some people. may be a sign that they are starting to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
People with this disorder have serious difficulty finding the right word when they try to communicate something. Sometimes it is very difficult to complete or give the correct meaning to a sentence. Is it because they’re not able to replace the word at the end?End of language, for a synonym, or even to explain what they mean by other words.
Because of this disease, people with Alzheimer’s begin to have serious communication problems because their vocabulary is reduced and they forget very common words that are used in everyday life, without which it is difficult to express themselves in a coherent and understandable way.
One of the most important warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease is disorientation, as suddenly people get lost when they go out on the street or in their own neighborhood and can sometimes even experience brief periods of disorientation in their own home.
As a result, do not know where the bathroom is or do not recognize the house where they live, living such situations can lead to severe episodes of stress and anxiety, these signs should be taken into account, however brief. may indicate that the person has Alzheimer’s.
With age, we may have a slight cognitive decline, which often makes us forget certain things, such as medical appointments or where we place a particular object, however, not everyone with mild cognitive impairment will have Alzheimer’s disease.
If we leave our children with their grandfather or grandmother and while they bathe they completely forget about their grandchildren, it can be a harbinger of Alzheimer’s disease. Temporary forgetfulness is normal, but people with Alzheimer’s disease completely forget what they were doing and have trouble accessing memory when I told them we were telling them what happened.
This also happens when they search for something. People with Alzheimer’s disease easily lose items because they can, for example, put sugar in an inappropriate place, like the oven or refrigerator.
That way, when they go to the right place, they won’t find him and they may even have forgotten where they put him. Sometimes they forget what they were doing, too. For example, if they clean the house and sweep the broom in the middle of the road, they forget they were cleaning and start doing something else.
People with Alzheimer’s disease have very sudden mood swings for no apparent reason. They may start crying suddenly when they were calm before or can get irritated when they smiled and were very calm before.
But on top of all this, one change that clearly shows that the person suffers from this disorder is that he loses the initiative to get things done, forgetting what he was doing, the disorientation and mood swings he experiences leave him so exhausted that he gets tired. easily and becomes very passive in the performance of any job.
Do people with Alzheimer’s need someone to motivate them to do things like go for a walk, meet other people, clean up, take a bath?This disease nullifies any initiative.
These are some warning signs that lead us to suspect possible dementia, it should be noted that at first they can be very subtle, considered normal phenomena that happen to all of us and that we do not take into account, however, over time. , will become increasingly obvious, clear and frequent.
Early diagnosis is critical to slowing its progression, as the disease usually worsens over time, allowing the patient to maintain their independence and quality of life for longer.