- Tasks according to abilities. Performing certain activities may take longer than in the past but if the person is determined to make that work is indicated to continue. Some changes are recommended. For example, if the cooking becomes a problem, we recommend other activities that are achievable, that means shopping, meal planning or construction or location of the easiest recipes.
- Amendment fireplace so that it is a safe place. Ex carpets stabilization using nails, putting surfaces to prevent slipping in the bath, ensuring cooker with automatic flame extinguisher, in case no memory problems. Assessment of risk of injury if you continue cooking.
- Ensuring a healthy diet. It is important that the person with Alzheimer’s diet consist of fruits, vegetables and grains. If the weight is small and doesn’t indicate its successful, growth supplements are indicated. Some people with dementia have sleep disturbances.

It is advisable to avoid sleeping during the day and make the exercise day and before bed to drink a glass of warm milk or tea without caffeine.

Certain diseases like hypertension (which cause vascular dementia), thyroid disease or Parkinson’s disease, help the elderly with Alzheimer’s dementia. Some of these conditions respond to medical treatment.
Cholinesterase inhibitors for treatment of mental decline in Alzheimer’s disease.
Memantine, a new drug introduced to treat Alzheimer’s disease, to treat memory loss and confusion moderate or severe. Tranquilizers to treat anxiety, agitation or hostile behavior, sleep disturbance, disillusionment, paranoia and hallucinations.
Selegiline used in treating disorders of memory and thinking.

*Surgery
Momentarily there is no surgical treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
*Alternative Therapies for Alzheimer’s disease stages signs symptoms
Treatment with certain plants, such as ginkgo-biloba is considered experimental.
Other therapies like light therapy, exercise, and aromatherapy may help to reduce behavioral disturbances such as agitation, but must be done only under supervision.
-Aromatherapy. A study of a small number of patients has shown that this therapy when used as a lotion with essential oils can be helpful in reducing agitation in people with severe dementia. However to prove the effectiveness, several studies are needed.
-Light therapy. This treatment is often used to treat depression. May be useful in treating depression, agitation and insomnia associated with Alzheimer’s disease. People are exposed to sunlight or artificial light for several hours each morning or evening to reduce depression. Light exercise like, walking, swimming may also relieve symptoms of depression caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
Another possibility to reduce the fuss is listening to relaxing music during meals or bathroom.

*Prophylaxis
So far no known means of preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
Although no substance has been proven to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, researchers are studying whether some substances to reduce the risk of developing the disease or delay its installation. These substances are:
- Vitamin E and other antioxidants in moderate amounts
- Which is diagnosed if elevated homocysteine levels indicate increased intake of folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12
- NSAIDs, like indomethacin, ibuprofen, naproxen or aspirin doses
- Statin, drugs commonly used to lower serum cholesterol.
There is little evidence that maintenance of a continuing intellectual activity could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Certain activities such as regular reading of newspapers, books, magazines, books or playing games, solving puzzles, visits to museums or even actively watching television or listening to the radio can help avoid the development of Alzheimer’s symptoms. Although this theory of “use it or lose it” is not proven to be effective, but there is evidence that these activities would be harmful use of intellect.

Solving behavior problems and loss of mental abilities is the biggest challenge for those who care for a patient with Alzheimer’s. Strategies to address these issues do not lead to their elimination, but they are more easily accepted. Maximize remaining abilities. A ill person should be allowed to make decisions as long as he can still do so. The person must be helped to cope more easily in the environment. Place labels on objects around the patient and on familiar objects like photographs.

Maintenance therapy is based on maximizing individual skills as they change and to resolve problems as they arise. Tasks range from caregivers to maintain a safe environment and putting the patient every day to find solutions to solve or minimize disturbance of conduct, as deviant and sleep disorders. There is a singular therapy to be useful to all people. Success depends on taking care of the person in charge of involvement in care decisions about treatment. These decisions will affect you both sick and the caretaker.

Treatment of advanced state of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms:
As the disease progresses, providing care is becoming increasingly difficult. Providing care for a person with Alzheimer’s is difficult, regardless of training or devotion to sick person. Patient’s hospitalization in an institution can be a difficult decision to take, but in some cases specialized institutions dealing with these patients may be the best solution.

Treatment in terminal stages:
Because Alzheimer’s disease evolves and symptoms worsen while some people choose to discuss certain issues that they care and legal problems that will occur. These people choose to write or say as long as desires are still in full mental faculties. Some patients want to try all the therapies that prolong life, while others prefer measures to maintain comfort without prolonging life.

Outpatient treatment (at home):
Most people in the moment of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s go through states of anger, fear, depression, anxiety and concern about future.
Although the disease evolves over time, some people are able to continue normal activities for many years, even at a low level.
*Issues facing people with Alzheimer’s and their family are:
– Whether to also drive the car or not. People in the early stages of disease should be periodically investigated to determine whether or not to drive safely. Family members can detect changes in driving behavior by simply traveling in the car.
– Legal and financial measures to be taken. Diagnosed in the period ahead is recommended writing a will and appoint a lawyer.

These measures are evidence that the wishes regarding therapy are documented.

Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease symptoms, there are many ways to maintain quality of life and maintain patient activity status of the person. In the first phase, immediately after the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is given cholinesterase inhibitors are administered.

These substances, including the  galantamine and rivastigmine, may temporarily improve memory and thinking affected by disease. The effects of these drugs are not spectacular and may not improve symptoms in some patients. Although cholinesterase inhibitors decrease the intensity of symptoms, they do not slow disease progression. However experts recommend cholinesterase inhibitors as first line in treatment.

Another drug, called memantine, may be used alone or in combination with cholinesterase inhibitors to treat moderate to severe symptoms of confusion or memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Memantine works differently than cholinesterase inhibitors, but even this does not slow disease progression.

Another important aspect of initial therapy is the detection and treatment of other medical problems associated with Alzheimer’s disease. For example, depression occurs in approximately 50% of patients with Alzheimer’s, especially in the early stages of disease when they are aware of the diagnosis and poor prognosis. Detecting and treating such conditions as depression can minimize disablement associated and maximize the patient’s remaining skills.

The initial treatment phase should be clarified with some family issues:
– Patient care he needs;
– The person that it will have on patient care and supervision as the disease advances;
– Aspects of the disease as it advances;
– Planning your sick person’s therapy and care.
Educating the family and people who take care of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease is essential to providing optimal care. Caregivers must be educated on issues that may occur in the disease.

Ongoing treatment
Cholinesterase inhibitor therapy is continued until no longer effective. These drugs are effective to some people more time than the others. Cholinesterase inhibitors are interrupted when the patient does not tolerate the adverse effects of these drugs.
Periodic physical examination by a specialist evaluates patient response to therapy, detect newly emerging issues, monitor symptoms and provide continuing education family or persons in charge of patient care. As the condition progresses the treatment is reviewed and the behavior disorders or other problems occurred are analyzed. Medical guidelines indicate consultation in six months or less if problems arise. It is important examination to detect other diseases.

Sight and hearing disorders, arthritis, thyroid gland disorders, and kidney diseases are frequently occurring problems in older people and can worsen the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Arthritis makes it difficult to move without assistance, hearing or vision problems can cause agitation, anxiety or inability to communicate. Treatment of these diseases increases patient quality of life and caregiver burden eases.

Low levels of acetylcholine in certain brain areas-Caterpillar boards, which consist of agglomerations of abnormal nerve cells surrounding amyloid deposits (abnormal protein) and components neurofibrilare, piles of material that interrupt normal nerve cell structure. Senile plaques and these nodes neurofibrilare are usually seen at autopsy. These changes in the brain can cause memory loss and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. It is not known why these changes occur in some people and at others do not appear. Alzheimer’s disease progresses over time, but the speed of progress depends from one person to another. Some events may have minimal until the late stages of disease.

Other people lose the ability to perform daily activities early during the disease.
Symptoms get progressively worse. At first, the disease is manifested by minor memory loss and progresses to severe functional and mental problems and even death. Symptoms are usually divided as those appearing in the initial phase, middle or late. It is difficult to say how long each phase is. An average person lives 8-10 years after symptoms appear. In this article, I’ll offer you the most important things you should know about Alzheimer’s disease stages signs symptoms.

The initial phase

Usually the initial stage of Alzheimer’s Handful:

- Gets confused on the direction and easily lost

- Lose the ability to initiate certain activities

- Avoid new and unfamiliar situations

- Have delayed reactions and slow storage capacity

- Speaks less often than in the past

- Has difficulty handling money and paying bills

- Has troubles of law and wrong decisions

- May have mood disorders and become depressed, irritable or restless.

These symptoms are often obvious when a person is in a place or a new situation, unfamiliar.

Intermediate phase of Alzheimer’s disease stages signs symptoms

Intermediate stage Alzheimer’s patient manifests:

- Problems recognizing family and friends

- Anxiety, especially in the afternoon and evening

- Problems reading, writing and interpreting numbers

- Thinking and logic problems

- Unable to find specific words or up stories to replace what he forgot

- Difficulties in single dress

- Mood disorders, gets upset easily and become hostile to cooperation

- False beliefs (disappointment), suspicion (paranoid) and agitation

- Require constant care

- Lose temporal orientation

Late phase

Late phase, advanced Alzheimer’s disease, patients:
- Not even remember how to wash, dress, go to the bathroom or eat without help. These people may be forced to stay in bed or wheelchair because forget to go

- Lose the ability to chew or swallow

- Have difficulty maintaining balance or walking and often fall because of this

- Become extremely confused and have insomnia tonight

- Cannot communicate with words

- Lose control of bladder or bowel control (incontinence)

During late Alzheimer’s disease, patients become more susceptible to other illnesses. In some cases, seizures can occur. Death occurs as a complication of pneumonia due to immobilization in bed.

- Some parts of some experiences

- The place where the car is parked

- Events in the distant past

- Name of a person, but later returns to mind

- The place where they put certain objects, ex car keys

Examples of memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s disease include forgetting:

- An experience entirely

- Interpretation time or driving the car

- Recent events, such as forgetting the fact that he left open the cooker

- A person completely

Alzheimer’s disease is also accompanies by changes in behavior, thinking or personality disorders. In the early stages of disease the person may behave normally in society. Family members and close friends see the first manifestations of disease. The signs of dementia that the difficulties of thinking or remembering certain things or problems in daily activities, you must encourage the person to consult with a specialist. Symptoms vary as the disease progresses.

The Association for Alzheimer patients has identified 10 warning signs for Alzheimer’s disease. These are:

- Memory loss, forgetting that recently saved the information, names or phone numbers

- Difficulty in performing his duties as preparing a meal

- Language disorders, forgetting words or substitute unusual words

- Temporal-spatial disorientation, forgetfulness address

- Disorders of law as putting on clothes unsuitable for the time

- Problems with abstract thinking that the impossibility of interpreting the numbers

- Placing certain objects in unusual places, such as iron in the fridge or watch in the sugar bowl

- Mood disorders, as rapid changes in their mood from calm to cry and then to anger for no apparent reason- Changes in personality, from confusion, suspicion, fear to addiction family members

- Lack of initiative manifested by drowsiness continue watching TV all day and refusing to perform ordinary daily activities.

Symptoms that may be present, but not always present:

- Strongly support of false beliefs, such as someone stealing from a person (disappointment)

- Sensations that hears or sees things that are not there (hallucinations)

- Lack of interest in activities surrounding or separation from friends and family

- Repeat activities without a purpose, as a closed or open bags, and packing-unpacking clothes, repetition of questions

- Physical or verbal aggression

- Inability to control certain impulses, which may lead to inappropriate actions

- Alzheimer’s disease usually affects fine motor ability (eg ability to close and open buttons or using utensils) or sense of touch.

A person with motor symptoms (muscle weakness or tingling in the hands of the hands) or sensory symptoms (sensation of numbness) probably have other than Alzheimer’s disease. Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis can be manifested by motor symptoms with dementia.

Other diseases with similar symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are:

- Other types of dementia, as dementia caused by multiple infarcts

- Dementia accompanied by malnutrition

- Thyroid diseases as hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism

- Depression

- Visual or auditory disturbances.

-Risk Factors:
Old age is the most important risk factor. Other risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s disease are:
- Family history of Alzheimer’s, especially if the disease has appeared in first degree relatives (mother, father, siblings) and appeared in several family members
- This gene for apolipo-protein E-4, especially to those who are whites or Asians, increases the risk of developing disease Alzheimer
- Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes mental retardation
- Diabetes, a disease that accompanies high blood sugar
- Hormone replacement therapy. A recent study showed that the risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease is increased in women over 65 who are in substitute therapy with estrogen and progesterone.

Several theories have been raised about the increasing risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. These theories include the following factors:

- Smoking. Some researchers have suggested that smoking would increase the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but these assumptions were not confirmed.

- Blows to the cephalic region. There is evidence supporting that a coup in the cephalic region (the head) followed by loss of consciousness, may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s later. Chances of developing the disease are increased if the injury is severe and patients have family history of Alzheimer’s disease.

- High blood levels of homocysteine. Homocysteine is an amino acid normally present in small quantities in blood. High levels of this amino acid are accompanied by increased risk of heart disease. Some researchers argue that increased levels of homocysteine were associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. These levels of homocysteine are caused by low blood levels of vitamin B12 and folic acid. Daily exposure to aluminum from the pot, aluminum cups, and aluminum deodorants wasn’t demonstrated that it increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

-Causes:
It is not known for sure what causes the disease because Alzheimer, but it’s possible to see several reasons. Some of the damage caused to certain brain areas are related to loss of neurons by chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) mainly acetylcholine, allowing neurons to function normally. Nobody knows for sure the cause of these changes, but there are research to determine this case. Although most patients with Alzheimer disease in family history have the disease, risk of this disease is higher in people who have a family member suffering from Alzheimer. Some studies have suggested that zinc and aluminum would have a role in causing disease, but they were not supported by evidence to support these theories.

So were the supporting roles, his friends and relatives in the movie. I was just a little boy back then. In the meantime I grew up a bit and I forgot about this word, but we would meet again…

Later, much later, I came across these words again: “the doctor said these are Alzheimer disease symptoms”; and they kept echoing into my head, reminding me of that old movie and the faces and reactions of the people in those roles. I was taken aback. I was still clueless to what the disease meant and what it entailed, but since this was someone close and since I was under the influence of the negative meaning comprised in the notion of “disease” I went online and started looking for information.

The first thing that came to my attention was that Alzheimer is an incurable disease, meaning that it cannot be healed and it cannot go away until you die. Furthermore, specialists are not exactly sure what causes this dreadful condition, but data points to heredity as a source. This means that you are born with the potential to develop the disease, and you draw this potential from your parents or relatives, who, in their turn, drew the same potential from their parents or relatives, and so on.

This got me thinking that there is nothing someone does wrong before developing this disease, and it is a bit like a lottery. Depressing thought.

Then, I started searching for Alzheimer disease symptoms and I came up with some nasty things. The symptoms refer to the mind. Alzheimer’s disease is dementia. This means forgetfulness, problems with speech, and so on. I will write about the most common ones below, but first I must say that these symptoms are easy to confuse with something else, so be sure to check with a doctor. Here are the symptoms:

-losing memory and forgetting things you have learned not too long ago.

-having problems with common, garden variety tasks, such as making breakfast, the rules of a certain game and so on.

-problems with words, namely patients tend to forget simple phrases and words and they replace them with more unusual terms.

-forgetting information about location and time, namely patients may forget where they are and they might not know how to return to a familiar place.

-lack of judgment, such as wearing too many clothes on a hot day or paying to much for a certain item.

-some of the Alzheimer patients may forget the use of abstract items, such as the purpose of numbers.

-dementia patients may put things in wrong places, such as placing the remote control in the microwave oven, and so on.

Dementia of Alzheimer’s now affects about 5% of people over 60 years. And ‘the most common form of dementia, one was caused by an alteration of brain function that involves serious difficulties for the patient to conduct normal daily activities. The disease affects memory and cognitive functions, affects the ability to speak and think but can also cause other problems including confusion, disorientation and changes in mood and space.

The disease is named after Alois Alzheimer, a German neurologist who for the first time in 1907 described the Alzheimer’s disease signs and symptoms and neuropathological aspects. At the autopsy examination, the doctor noticed special signs in the brain tissue of a woman who had died as a result of an unusual mental illness. In fact, this indicates the presence of agglomerates, then defined amyloid plaques and tangled bundles of fibers, the neuro-fibrillary tangles. Today, the plaques formed by amyloid proteins and tangles are considered the effects on nerve tissue of a disease which, despite the considerable efforts put into the field, the causes are still unknown.

In patients with dementia of Alzheimer there has been observed a loss of nerve cells in brain areas vital to memory and other cognitive functions. There is also a low level of those chemicals, such as acetylcholine, which work like neurotransmitters and are thus not involved in the communication between nerve cells.

The course of the disease is slow and on average patients can live for up to 8-10 years after diagnosis of the disease.

The Alzheimer’s dementia is manifested by mild memory problems, to result in serious damage to brain tissue, but the rapidity with which aggravate the symptoms varies from person to person. In the course of the disease, cognitive deficits are exacerbated and can lead the patient to serious loss of memory, to put the same questions repeatedly, to get lost in familiar places, inability to follow the clear guidance, to have disorientation about time, about people and places, but also to neglect their personal safety, hygiene and nutrition.

The cognitive problems may, however, be present even years before the formulation of a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia is made.

Diagnosis

Today the only way to make a definite diagnosis of dementia of Alzheimer’s is through the identification of amyloid plaques in brain tissue, possible only with an autopsy after the death of the patient. This means that during the course of the disease can only make a diagnosis of Alzheimer ‘possible’ or ‘probable’. For this reason, doctors use various tests:

-neuropsychological tests to measure memory, problem solving, the degree of attention, the ability to count and dialogue;

-examine the brain to identify any possible sign of abnormality;

These tests allow the doctor to rule out other possible causes that lead to similar symptoms, such as thyroid problems, adverse reactions to drugs, depression, brain tumors, but also diseases of the blood vessels of the brain.

As in other neurodegenerative diseases, early diagnosis is very important because it offers the possibility to treat some symptoms of the disease, because it allows the patient to plan his future, when it is still capable of making decisions.