In the recent sphere, the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease is rising. More than six million Americans currently have Alzheimer’s disease, and 73% of seniors are 75 or older. It is estimated that by 2050, the number may increase to 12.7 million. As a result, the need for personal care assistants is also multiplying among American families to support the personal home care needs of their senior loved ones.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
It is a progressive neurological condition that affects social skills and causes behavioral changes that impede cognitive decisions in the long run.
What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
Although the cause of this neurological disorder has not yet been conclusively established, several cases have shown a connection between the onset of Alzheimer’s and age-related changes in the brain, such as the shrinkage of particular brain regions, vascular damage, the breakdown of energy production within cells, and genetic, environmental, or lifestyle factors, and so on.
When it comes to genetic causes, there are subtle differences between late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Let us give you a peek at their symptoms:
1). The symptoms of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease are most common amongst senior citizens in their mid-60s, and they are often caused by APOE e2 genes.
2). The symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease appear between the 30s and mid-60s and are often caused by gene changes that are passed down hereditarily.
Symptoms differ from person to person. Initial indications of Alzheimer’s disease include declining cognitive abilities and memory loss. Mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, refers to complex memory issues that are typical for people of their age but do not significantly impact their daily lives. Physical mobility and olfactory senses are affected, and performing cognitive tasks is no less than a challenge. Elderly people with MCI have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, but there are cases where some may get better, so not everyone is at risk.
Let us give you a quick tour of five common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease:
Difficulty initiating or carrying out basic tasks: While aging causes forgetfulness, seniors with Alzheimer’s disease have difficulty concentrating on basic tasks such as getting dressed or carrying out basic daily chores.
Getting lost in familiar places: Oftentimes, a person with Alzheimer’s tends to wander around familiar places unintentionally. They forget where they need to go or how they got there in the first place, and this can happen at any stage of the disease. Six out of ten dementia sufferers will wander at least once, and many do so repeatedly. This can be life-threatening at times.
Language problems: Initiating basic conversation or communicating needs becomes challenging. In such a case, finding the appropriate word to describe an object gets difficult, and a person may describe the object instead of calling it by a familiar name. For instance, words like ‘toothbrush,’ or comb become ‘the thing in the mouth’ or ‘the thing that brushes my hair’ and so on. Such basic communication skills get affected, and the conversation becomes difficult. Also, a person with this neurological disorder finds difficulty arranging words or sentences logically.
Affects mood and behavior changes: When a person is unable to communicate effectively, their social skills deteriorate over time. Additionally, one can often have behavioral changes or rapid mood swings, such as getting upset rapidly, having delusional ideas, being depressed or disinterested in things, having unusual sexual behaviors, and so on. These are quite common behavioral changes.
Making poor judgments: We frequently make poor decisions in life, but someone with Alzheimer’s disease is unable to choose what to wear or who to lend money to. Declining cognitive abilities also influence the cognitive processes involved in comprehending, analyzing, and processing information, which leads to poor decision-making abilities. For instance, a person with Alzheimer’s may end up dressing in multiple layers during the summer while only dressing minimally during the winter.
As of now, there is no specific cure for Alzheimer’s disease, and we understand that taking care of your senior loved ones with dementia or Alzheimer’s can be challenging, so Comfi-Kare homecare provider has got you covered with personal care services for seniors and the elderly. For your loved ones, we provide senior care services such as memory care. To learn more about Alzheimer’s elderly care, please contact us.