Many people believe that Alzheimer’s disease is nothing more than memory destruction, and have little understanding of the middle and later stages of the disease. In fact, the destruction of memory is only the earliest symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, it is like the most terrible plague of modern times, slowly eating away the patient’s once vivid life.
In sharp contrast, people in China are afraid of talking about cancer. The fear of cancer stems from the rapid deterioration of cancer, which makes people feel its rapid killing power; on the other hand, cancer patients have the ability to express the pain brought to them by the disease. In contrast, Alzheimer’s disease eats away at life bit by bit over a long period of years, making its devastation underestimated; moreover, patients’ ability to express themselves rapidly deteriorates in the middle and late stages, making them unable to express their pain.
The inability to express their pain.
A questionnaire conducted in the United States showed that the diseases Americans fear most are: cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s disease. The author believes that the widespread knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States has made people aware of its dangers.
This is why the article from the World Alzheimer’s Organization was excerpted and translated, hoping to raise awareness of this disease. For the sake of our parents and for our own sake, please join us in preventing Alzheimer’s disease. The translation is as follows.
Alzheimer’s disease is divided into several stages, and what we often see and learn about is often only the first stage of it.
From early to mid-stage, and then to late stage Alzheimer’s disease, is a gradual progression of the disease – these stages are also not divided by time, they are determined by the patient’s symptoms.
Early Stage Symptoms
As you know, the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are a failure of learning ability and memory. Patients at this time will also have some speech impairment, although they are generally able to communicate with others. They will have some difficulty moving around, but it is not easily noticeable.
The following can help you determine if a person with early Alzheimer’s disease.
1. Can’t accurately say or describe a thing they remember
2. Cannot remember the name of a new acquaintance
3. Often lose, or misplace valuables
4. The ability to work and cooperate with others is getting worse
Describe their heart with a phrase, “I know what I want to say, I just can’tfind the words” – I know what I want to say, but I can’t find a word to describe it.
Mid-stage symptoms
By this time, the patient has deteriorated somewhat. Things that they could do independently before become difficult, they gradually lose the ability to take care of themselves on a daily basis, their ability to express themselves deteriorates further, and they often use the wrong words to express what they want to say. At the same time
At the same time, physical coordination becomes worse and falls easily. Memory for people and events is much worse than in the early stages of the disease, and the person begins to not recognize his or her loved ones and loses some long-term memories.
Emotional variability is also not negligible. At this time, Alzheimer’s patients become irritable, weepy and even aggressive, and may be accompanied by sunset syndrome (described previously). Often in the middle stages, families will choose to send the Alzheimer’s patient in their family to a nursing facility.
The following are the bases for determining mid-stage.
1.Forgetting things they have done that they always remember (can’t remember their home phone number, can’t remember their graduation university, workplace)
2.Mood changes
3, do not know what day it is, do not know where they are
4.Dressing seasonally wrong
5, very easy to get lost
6.Suspicious, hallucinations
Later stage symptoms
Later stage Alzheimer’s patients are completely dependent on caregivers and cannot feed themselves. In terms of language, they can only utter a few words or lose the ability to speak completely. Eventually, the patient faces death, caused by external factors, such as pneumonia, pressure ulcers – because Alzheimer’s disease makes the patient defenseless against these diseases.
The later stages manifest as follows.
1, unable to take care of themselves and need the care of all others
2.Speech ability is extremely poor
3.Can’t walk, even can’t eat
4.Basically no resistance to the disease
Of course, some Alzheimer’s patients can live 4-5 years from the time they are diagnosed with the disease, and some can live up to 20 years, which means that medications and lifestyle habits can still help with Alzheimer’s disease and can temporarily slow down the symptoms. But there is no drug that can cure Alzheimer’s disease.