Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die Alzheimer occurs when an individual find it difficult to reminiscence daily or certain incidents and affects their daily lives. Alzheimer is mostly seen in aged patients, starting from 65 and more. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia — a continuous decline in thinking, behavioral and social skills that affects a person’s ability to function independently and efficiently.
Currently, 50 million people are diagnosed with Alzheimer globally and this number is predicted to be doubled by the year 2050.
Alzheimer in the context of Bangladesh – Bangladesh being a highly dense and under-developed country has very little to zero awareness about Alzheimer disease. There are 9,917 deaths recorded in Bangladesh due to Alzheimer disease. And this ranks Bangladesh the 152nd position globally.
Alzheimer in the global context – Currently, 5.8 million people in the USA are affected with Alzheimer. It is one of the main causes of Dementia. At present, 55 million people are diagnosed with Dementia globally, this number is likely to double in the next 20 years.
Early signs of Alzheimer include –
- Memory loss – forgetting both major and minor events. The patients find it difficult to recall regular incidents. Sometimes, not being able to recall very well-known faces is an evidence of Alzheimer.
- Poor judgment leading to bad decisions – patients cannot differ between good and bad, and gives illogical reasoning’s. Patients simultaneously find it difficult to make decisions while carrying this disease.
- Loss of spontaneity and sense of initiative – In these situations, patients feel lazy and reluctant to begin a new task. They show loss of interest in anything they do and struggle to feel enthusiastic about any given tasks.
- Taking longer time to complete normal daily tasks – This happens when completing daily simple tasks becomes a challenge, and longer than the usual time to complete it.
- Repeating questions –patients keep on asking same questions repeatedly.
- Trouble handling money and paying bills – calculative tasks like division of money and handing over bills becomes difficult for the Alzheimer patients.
- Wandering and getting lost – At this stage, patients become unable to return to old and known addresses. Often times, such patients are seen to ask pedestrians their own addresses and face difficulties to return on their own.
- Losing things or misplacing them in odd places -Alzheimer patients lose objects easily, often keep things in the wrong places, where it is never kept.
- Mood and personality changes – Patients often have sudden changes in state of minds and become a lot more impulsive than usual.
- Increased anxiety and/or aggression – Patients get angry easily at trivial matters.
There are five stages associated with Alzheimer’s disease:
- Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease – At this stage, the symptoms are not visible and the disease can prevail for years. However, new imaging technologies help us to detect protein deposits which is a vital early sign of Alzheimer.
- Mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease – At this stage, slight changes prevail in an individual’s memory and thinking ability deteriorates.
- Mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease – At the beginning of this stage, intense and visible symptoms start to show. Patients tend to face memory loss, faces difficulties solving complex tasks, sudden personality changes and often getting lost.
- Moderate dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease- At this stage, people become more forgetful and more confused about their thoughts and finds it difficult to communicate with others.
- Severe dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease – This is the final stage of Alzheimer’s disease. At this stage, the brain function starts declining gradually at a faster rate. Patients cannot communicate coherently and lose the capabilities to continue regular physical movements, patients require assistance in order to complete their day to day tasks; starting from walking, eating, bathroom activities etc.
