Death of the Mind: Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s Disease: The Ultimate Sacrifice

It takes almost 3 years for significant others to take their loved ones to the doctor to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Why is this so? We don’t do it with any other disease, do we?

Several reasons are given by the caretakers for this lag in initial diagnosis.

• Lack of knowledge about Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)

• They didn’t realize that the changing behavior was part of an illness

• They were unsure as to what type of doctor they should go to, or how to accurately and articulately describe symptoms

• They were overwhelmed with the duties of being the caregiver

• They were afraid of the ultimate terminal diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

• They were in denial, as the future of Alzheimer patients was so hopeless and futile.

Patients with AD are also part of the problem. Those with exceptional intelligence can mask the deterioration in mental abilities far beyond what the patient with average IQ. They also are frightened of what is happening to them, and in denial. Therefore, the physician is placed in an uncomfortable position, and if they can not conduct simple testing in their office, they often will do nothing.

Alzheimer’s is often referred to as the death of the mind before the death of the body. In the first few years, the patient exhibits a loss of zest about living. They start to become passive about things or issues which had impassioned them just a few years back. Short term memory is affected, although usually not memory for events which happened several years ago (not initially, at least). By the end of this stage, the patient is usually no longer able to keep a job, carry out most daily tasks or organize time and dates.

The middle stage lasts the longest. It is marked by confusion, and loss of ability to remember events which occurred in the past. Long term memory is erased forever from the mind. Patients begin to ‘babble’ as they forget not only others’ discussion, but their own as well. This is the stage where wandering starts to occur. The patient often times becomes aggressive. The aggressive behavior occurs to about 30% of AD patients, and is the main reason for institutionalization in a nursing home. The patient will still remember familiar faces, but towards the end of this stage they are latching on to only one or two names they can remember, as their grasp on reality begins to slip.

The last stage lasts only one or two years, thankfully. The deterioration becomes complete. The victim cannot remember faces, even their own. If they look in a mirror, they won’t know who they are looking at. The nervous system is so damaged that the patient becomes incontinent, has difficulty in coordinating body movements, and seizures often occur. The patient becomes emaciated and looks skeleton-like. They finally go into a vegetative state, and die, from either pneumonia or septicemia.

The race to prevent Alzheimer's has taken on urgency as the number of Americans with the disease is expected to soar in the coming decades. If current rates hold, up to 16 million people will develop Alzheimer's by the middle of the century, according to the Alzheimer's Association. This is far out strip the number of nursing homes we have to give care, and break the bank on Medicare and Medicaid.