The different stages of Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that affects many people all over the world. This disease is a degenerating one and will affect people in their latest 50^’s. It is very difficult to watch people with Alzheimer’s disease as their problems increase however, knowledge of what to expect can be perhaps the only way to try and cope with the pain of seeing a member of your family in this confused and painful state. Alzheimer’s has been classified by seven stages; however, not everybody goes through these stages.

First, Alzheimer disease does not give any real signs of its existence and you will not be able to notice anything wrong with a person suffering from it in the first stages.  When the disease reaches its second stage, then you begin to find small things like a memory loss here and there on part of the person or family members, however, you may think that to be natural as it is easy to forget something when you become old.

On the third stage the disease starts to show some more prominent signs of its existence and you may see some very clear signs that your loved one may be actually having some problem with memory issues. If the memory lapses begin to be seen very often and very obvious, then a doctor may actually be able to give an early diagnosis of the problem, however, this is not easy as perhaps you are not really aware that the disease has this stage as well.

It is only in the fourth stage that you are able to be totally clear about the disease. At this stage, it becomes obvious that there is something wrong with the patient, and that there is something that needs to be done about it. The memory lapses begin to increase and the patient begins to forget simple things all the time.

On the fifth and six stages, the patient will start to get really confused. This is the time when the patient will really need to have assistance at all times, because, he or she may forget his own home address and phone number and looking after himself may become a extremely difficult task, because the memory is not really helping him cope with small things like going to the supermarket or getting the groceries right.

On the sixth stage the patient may wonder off at some stage and find himself somewhere that they don’t know and will not be able to find their way back home because they have forgotten here they live. They will have problems with sleep because the sleeping patterns get disturbed and they will be confused with the dates, time of the day and seasons. This is a very painful stage where you will see the patient of Alzheimer has to cope with all the confusion that the mind is playing on their system.

On the seven stages, the patient loses many of its abilities to remember anything at all and he may also begin to hallucinate. The patient will forget his name and he may have problems recognizing people also.

Having an understanding of what to expect with diseases like Alzheimer’s is a great support for you when a loved one is involved.

Related current health articles

• Legal or Illegal Marijuana – what is better? (0)