Face Alzheimer’s Disease Bravely

A beautiful quote says: “Love if you have moved on and already forgotten. Don’t love just to forget.’’ Lovely and true and indeed a very sad moment when someone dear to you is found to have the unfortunate nine-letter disease called Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects the brain and makes causes people to grow gradually more disorganized as they grow older. In medical terms: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It is a neurological brain disorder named after a German physician, Alois Alzheimer, who described it 115 years ago in 1906.

Alzheimer’s Disease also harms one’s memory abilities, and in many sad cases, there is no way to reverse the condition. And as most patients are required to stay at home, their families have to bear the patient’s suffering.

Auguste Deter was the first notable case of Alzheimer’s disease. She had lived an ordinary life until her forties. It was then that she developed trouble sleeping and would even scream for hours in the middle of the night.

This continued for a while and on 25th November 1901, she was examined by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who asked her several questions. Later, he asked her the same questions again to see how much she could remember. Dr. Alois Alzheimer also asked Auguste to write her name but she was unable to. In time, she suffered greatly and eventually died on 8 April 1906.

More than a century later, her case was re-examined with modern medical technologies, and a genetic cause was found for her disease by scientists in Sydney. The results were published in the journal titled ‘The Lancet Neurology’.

Warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease are as follows:

1. Memory loss that disrupts daily life
2. Challenges in planning thought process
3. Difficulty in completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure
4. Confusion regarding time or place
5. Trouble understanding visual images correctly
6. New problems with words in speaking or writing
7. Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps
8. Withdrawal from normal work or social activities
9. Mood swings occurrence
10. Inability to judge well

It is dreary to imagine a friend or family member who needs help rising their teeth every morning, their bowels monitored, fed painstakingly for hours, with the knowledge that the person may or may not be able to eat, or may or may not sleep, or may weep for no rhyme or reason. Such instances can be extremely depressing, and even more so when we realize that unfortunate people are often avoided by their friends during these tough moments in life.