Alzheimer

[Rasputin]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that progressively destroys cognitive abilities. An individual may gradually lose the ability to communicate, make decisions, or perform activities of daily living. They might experience memory loss, abnormal behavior, a change in personality, and an increase of anxiety and dementia.

If you're caring for a person with AD, here are steps you can take to minimize stress and maximize comfort.

Understand the disease and stages of progression. Look on the internet or at the library. Find local organizations that offer Alzheimer's education. It will be difficult to face some facts, but you need to know what to expect.
There are 7 described stages to the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Many patients are not diagnosed until they have reached stage 4. Determine which stage the person is in, and what the symptoms are now and as the disease progresses.
Alzheimer's patients live an average of 8 years after diagnosis. Some patients will survive only 3 years, and others survive up to 20 years.
Plan ahead. Once you are aware of how Alzheimers disease may affect this person, think ahead and be ready for the changes that will follow, both in the short term and in the long run. You will need to prepare both materially and emotionally. Eventually, you will probably need to: assist with toileting and personal hygiene; adapt mealtime rituals to suit their condition; and obtain a wheelchair when mobility becomes a problem.
Create a safe environment. Make changes in your home that will protect the person you are caring for. Limit access to dangerous areas and medicine cabinets. Install child-safety locks and automatic shut-off devices. Install grab-bars in the bath. It may become necessary to take measures that will prevent them from leaving the house and wandering off.

Create a supportive environment. Your loved one may forget names for common objects. It will not help to reprimand. A person with dementia will not benefit from an argument. Offer love, emotional support, spiritual support, interesting activities, and social interaction with understanding people.


Anticipate behavior and personality changes. A sufferer of Alzheimer's will lose the ability to perform complex tasks, then later, even simple tasks. The sleep-wake cycle will become disrupted, keeping you up some nights. They may suffer hallucinations, even the delusion that you are an enemy or imposter.
Provide appropriate health care. Be ready to treat symptoms. Some medications will help give them greater quality of life, even if they cannot cure Alzheimer's disease. Be watchful for illnesses and injuries, such as infections or skin tears. Watch for urinary tract infections and other problems related to incontinence.

Enlist help from professionals. There are paid care givers and healthcare workers that can come into your home. Many nursing facilities offer adult daycare services. Skilled nursing facilities can provide care on a short-term so that both you and the person you are looking after can get rest and refreshment. Seek help from a hospice when appropriate.

Start coping with anticipatory grief. There is no known cure for Alzheimer's disease. It is fatal. The affected person did not invite this disease. You did not deserve this situation. You have suffered a great loss and should expect to experience pain. You should also look for ways to begin healing after the grief.

Not all memory loss is Alzheimer's disease. Not all dementia is Alzheimer's disease.
Some medical professionals believe that loss of the sense of smell is the first symptom to appear. This should not be used as a conclusive screen.
Never make a promise that should not be kept. The best option for some patients is residence in a skilled nursing facility. They can provide healthcare and supervision that is not possible in your home.

[Rasputin]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Having more years of formal education delays the memory loss linked to Alzheimer's disease, but once the condition begins to take hold, better-educated people decline more rapidly, researchers said on Monday.

Their study, published in the journal Neurology, tracked memory loss in a group of elderly people from New York City's Bronx borough before they were diagnosed with Alzheimer's or another form of old-age dementia.

Every year of education delayed the accelerated memory decline that precedes dementia by about 2-1/2 months, according to the researchers at Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

But once this memory loss began, the rate of decline unfolded 4 percent more quickly for each additional year of education, the researchers said.

Someone with 16 years of schooling might experience memory decline 50 percent more quickly than another person with just four years education, based on the findings.

Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain malady that is the most common form of dementia among the elderly.

"An elderly person who starts to see memory loss might well deteriorate fairly rapidly, particularly if he or she has a high education or high IQ," Charles Hall, a professor of epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

"And this is important to clinicians to know so they can advise their patients that things might well get very bad very fast, whereas in a lot of other people the decline is relatively gradual over a long period of time," Hall added.

People with more years of formal education appear to have a greater "cognitive reserve," Hall said, referring to the brain's ability to keep working despite damage.

While better-educated people may be diagnosed with Alzheimer's later than people with less education, it appears they have suffered brain damage but their "cognitive reserve" was able to hide and delay the effects, the researchers said.

The study started in the 1980s, tracking 488 people born from 1894 and 1908 and giving them periodic memory tests. The findings published on Monday were based on 117 of them who eventually developed Alzheimer's or another dementia.

Most of the participants were followed until either death or diagnosis of dementia. Those diagnosed with dementia were followed for up to about 16 years, with an average of six years.

The study included people with postgraduate education as well as others with fewer than three years of elementary school. Hall noted that levels of education that people received varied much more in the early part of the 20th century than they do now.

Hall said the study was valuable in part because it examined memory loss before a formal diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Other studies have detected quicker memory loss among more highly educated people after diagnosis of Alzheimer's.