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Alzheimer's Disease:

Q: What is Alzheimer's disease?

A: Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia, a term used to describe a group of brain disorders that cause memory loss and a decline in mental functions, over time. The risk of Alzheimer's disease increases with age and is not a normal part of aging. The cause of Alzheimer's is still unknown amongst doctors and scientists.

Q: What are the different stages of Alzheimer's disease?

A: Over time, Alzheimer's disease progresses through three stages, mild, moderate and severe . The mild stage is not that noticeable and the person may seem healthy but in reality they are actually having trouble making sense of the world around them. Moderate, in this stage the damaging process that occurs in the brain worsens and spreads to other areas that control language, reasoning, sensory processing, and thought. People with severe Alzheimer's disease may lose the ability to walk, speak, feed themselves, and recognize others.

Q: How is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed?

A: The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is most often made in the moderate stage. To diagnose Alzheimer's doctors use a series of tests and tools to evaluate thinking, behavior and physical function. These tests include: Clock drawing test, mini-mental state examination (MMSE), and functional assessment staging (FAST)

Q: How is information learned from these tests to determine whether a person has Alzheimer's or not?

A: Doctor's will find from these tests that dementia is confirmed by medical and psychological exams. There will be problems in at least two areas of mental functioning as well as progressive loss of memory and other mental functions. Early symptoms typically begin between the ages of 40 and 90.

Q: Are there any other symptoms of Alzheimer's?

A: There are many symptoms to Alzheimer's disease and these include: Difficulty learning and remembering new information, difficulty managing finances, difficulty planning meals and taking medication on schedule, depression symptoms, getting lost going to familiar places, forgetting old facts, continually repeating stories, asking the same questions over and over, making up stories to fill gaps, difficulty performing tasks, agitation and behavioral symptoms, restlessness, wandering, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, deficits in intellect and reasoning, lack of concern for appearance, hygiene and sleep, groaning, screaming, mumbling or speaking gibberish, refusing to eat, inappropriately crying out, failure to recognize family or faces and difficulty with essential activities of daily living.