Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is neurodegenerative disease that affects patient's cognitive abilities (Tabloski, 2014). AD is the most common type of dementia, accounting for eighty percent of all dementia diagnosis (Tabloski, 2014). AD is irreversible, progressive, and there is no cure (Biercewicz, Filipska, & Kedziora-Kornatowska, 2016). The purpose of this post is to describe what I have learned after watching, the Frontline documentary, Living Old. I will discuss what I did not previously know, what I found surprising, and what piece of information I will take back to my nursing practice.…
Symptoms may include memory loss, mental decline, confusion in the evening hours, disorientation, inability to speak or understand, making things up, mental confusion, inability to recognize common things, irritability, personality changes, restlessness, lack of restraint, wandering and getting lost, anxiety, loneliness, mood swings, depression, hallucination, paranoia, inability to combine muscle movements, or unsteady walking. A person who has contracted dementia can experience all of the aforementioned symptoms as they are separated into five different categories. Those categories are the cognitive, behavioral, mood, psychological, and muscular functions which all are affected by dementia. As a result of how many different groups that dementia can affect, it can affect people in such a severe way that they often cannot recognize family members or understand speech.…
Health care practitioners and researchers are unsure what causes Alzheimer’s disease, however there are factors that can increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. These include; a person’s age, the family’s history of the condition, any previous head injuries and the individual’s lifestyle factors (smoking, drinking etc.). Alzheimer’s disease as mentioned previously is what’s called a progressive condition meaning the symptoms will increase over time. The first and most common sign of Alzheimer’s disease is usually memory loss, this may mean the individual may forget recent events, people’s names and even forget their whereabouts. Later on when the disease becomes more prominent the individual may begin to develop symptoms such as confusion, disorientation, getting lost in known arears, making unclear decisions, developing communication or speech problems and even mood swings such as becoming aggressive or even feeling depressed on a regular basis.…
Other symptoms of dementia include the loss of the ability to focus and pay attention, disruption in speech or the loss of speech ability, apathy, confusion, and the inability to reason or impaired…
Alice’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease appear without warning. In the beginning, slight memory loss plagued her, but she was fully capable of functioning like a normal human being. Little slips in her memory would come and go like the wind; her first warning sign appeared when she simply forgot a certain word in a meeting. The slope began with just little things being forgotten. Her habitual rituals liking jogging were impacted; Alice was off jogging yet she forget where she was despite the fact that she had been around the campus many times before the incident.…
Despite their independence, the person may experience word finding or receptive language deficits, and errors of judgement ( “Stages of Alzheimer’s, n.d., para.1). The middle stage of Alzheimer’s is recognized to be the longest stage and carry over for many years. Individuals in the middle stage start to rely more heavily on caregivers. Personality and behavioral changes like delusions, compulsive, suspiciousness, temper outbursts, depression and agitation emerge. Memory lapses and general confusion are more frequent as well as an increase in expressive language deficits.…
I was actually going to write about obesity but giving the many have already do so, I decided to shed some light on Alzheimer. The personal troubles of most of the illnesses we are discussing are that they attack the body; however, Alzheimer’s is a little different because it destroys the mind; It's a brutal and debilitating disease. As the patient's brain slowly dies, they change physically and eventually forget who their loved ones are. Patients can eventually become incapacitated, unable to move and not to eat or drink.…
The numerous forms of dementia are rather difficult to explain or quantify in layman's terms, but there are universal symptoms. Memory loss is a key symptom and perhaps the cruelest blow dealt by the disease. Loved ones and friends might also notice severe or subtle personality changes as well as impaired reasoning and physical skills…
Though the film The Notebook is a very sweet love story, that will for sure have the audience wiping away tears, it’s not really much of an accurate portrayal of what real-life circumstances of Alzheimer’s may be like 50-80% of the time (alz.org). For this film, I feel that it was based more on “make believe” rather than actual realistic symptoms of Alzheimer’s. This is not a bad thing of course, but if you’re looking for something a little more realistic for this disease, I would suggest trying a different film.…
One of the most common forms of dementia is known as Alzheimer's disease. Patients who are suffering from the disease can suffer from symptoms which include impaired reasoning, memory loss, changes in personality, and depression. In this instance, memory loss not only relates to past experiences, but it also refers to one's ability to communicate with others by understanding a language. The onset stages for Alzheimer's differ for many people, but the intensity of the symptoms increase as age increases.…
My papw has had Alzheimer’s longer than I can remember. When I was younger, I spent much of my time at my mamaw and papaw’s house. I remember the front door’s white paint being so old and cracked it resembled the bark of a river birch tree, and stepping into the house you could smell the thick aroma of whatever my papaw was cooking that day. One day in particular I was looming over my papaw’s shoulder as he began to cook a breakfast of fried eggs for my mamaw. He positioned himself to where I could watch and learn how to cook the meal myself.…
Have you ever wondered what it is like to wake up and not know who your family is or where you even at? “Nearly 44 million people have alzheimer’s or a related dementia”(). The causes of alzheimer's isn't very clear but we know the causes of it on the brain. Alzheimer's is a disease that has progressive brain cells failure.…
Outline for The Main Effects of Alzheimer’s Dementia. A) INTRODUCTION: There are many different types of Dementia but most common are Alzheimer’s. People are unaware of the effects that their loved ones suffer with when diagnosed with this disease. There are 3 stages of Alzheimer’s that eventually take over the human brain of someone with this disease. The three main symptoms for each stage of Alzheimer’s are stage 1: Memory impairment – memory is affected, not being able to remember people’s names or misplacing object’s.…
At this stage the person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s will become more dependent on a caregiver. The symptoms of the first stage become more obvious, along with agitation caused by constant confusion. The nerve cells in the brain slowly deteriorate causing difficulty to express thoughts or perform daily routine. The last stage known as the late-stage, the individual loses their ability to respond to their environment. Communicating becomes nearly impossible and memory and cognitive skills worsen.…
I believe that although one may begin to understand and empathize with a person that may have Alzheimer’s disease they nor anyone else will ever understand what exactly it is like to have it until they actually experience it. With each encounter the nurse may gain more empathy or understanding of what they say they are feeling no one but them knows how it feels deep down…