Alzheimer’s disease: Criteria and symptoms

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative brain disorder , clinical defined by a gradual decline in both memory and impairment of at least one other area of higher intellectual function.That decline is termed by physician as dementia.

As the disease progress, people with Alzheimer’s become unable to care for themselves, and their loses of brain function eventually leads to the failure of other system in the body, causing death three to twenty years from the onset of symptoms.

Typically for Alzheimer’s disease, memory of recent events is the first function affected, this usually shows up as problems with remembering appointment, new names and new routes in unfamiliar neighborhoods and in absorbing decreased amounts of information from reading a newspaper or book or from watching TV.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are actually much more problematic than just the simple lapses in memory and these symptoms begin to interfere with the ability to perform normal activities.

*Difficulties with ordinary task and daily activities
*Making unusual decisions or acting inappropriately
*Difficulty leaning new things
*Dependency-fear of leaving familiar soundings
*Social withdrawal, apathy and passivity

A brain from a person with Alzheimer’s does not look the same as that of a person who died of ‘old age’. It is much more shrunken. It can be up to one third smaller and lighter because of the shrinkage.
Alzheimer’s disease: Criteria and symptoms