Sings and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

Visualize waking up one day and completely forgetting where you are, or how you got there. This forgetfulness could be a sign of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, causes slow progressive problems in the brain. “Alzheimer's disease accounts for 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases.” (Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia) Alzheimer’s affects certain tasks of the brain such as remembrance, decision, and day-to-day functions of the body. It predominantly affects adults older than sixty and ultimately destroys a person’s ability to focus, function, and care for themselves. “Although not all memory loss indicates Alzheimer’s disease, one in ten people over 65 years of age, and over half of those over 85 have Alzheimer’s disease.” (Alzheimer’s Disease)

In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German physicist, discovered Alzheimer’s disease because of a death of one of his patients. The patient had a mental illness but nobody knew exactly what it was. She displayed signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s, as we know today. (Who Discovered) Signs and symptoms slowly develop then get progressively worse. They progress from a mild state to a very severe decline in the brains function and structure.

There are eight specific signs of Alzheimer’s disease; memory loss is the most common sign. It is most evident when a person forgets recently learned information, such as a simple instruction or not being able to recall a person’s name after just meeting them. Misplacing items, such a putting things in odd places, is also a forgetful sign of the disease. An example would be putting keys in the blender or being unable to retrace steps to find what they have recently lost. This sign is more noticeable in a normally neat and orga...

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...agic disease. I hope the researchers recent discovery of the peanut butter diagnosis works effectively so patients can treat their early stage of Alzheimer’s before it gets progressively worse. It devastates me to think about how a person’s life can change at any moment in their lifetime. A fully functioning person could wake up one morning and completely forget where they are or who they are. A patient could be diagnosed with a mild stage of Alzheimer’s disease, and then when they go to their next appointment, they could be diagnosed with a severe decline of Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease is a devious disease because it is unknown when the disease can react on the body or when the signs and symptoms will increase. In conclusion, the life lesson I have learned from this research is to never take anything for granted because anything can happen at any given time.