What"s Death Like in Alzheimer"s?
Alzheimer's is a neurological disorder and it was named after a German physician named Alois Alzheimer.
In Alzheimer's, there is aggregation of amyloid plaques and tangles of neurofibrils in the brain tissue.
This causes damage of nerve tissue and causes serious damage to the different centers in brain.
The areas that are completely destroyed in Alzheimer's are related to memory and thinking.
At this point in time, there are about 4 million people in US alone who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
The time span from diagnosis of this disease and death is about eight years on an average.
This disease does not know any boundaries, race, religion, caste or creed.
It hunts millions of people throughout the world.
It is so sad.
And we do not have any medicines to control or eradicate this deadly disease.
Now let us see as to what happens in between the time of diagnosis till death.
This disease is diagnosed in a person with complaints of loss of memory in which one starts to forget the recently learned things as the primary symptom.
We can simply break the time span from the diagnosis to death in three phases.
The first phase starts from the time of diagnosis and in this the individual shows lack of energy and lack of interest in everything that they might have loved.
Such a change in someone you love is like trying so hard to look through a pitch black space.
Life just seems to stop.
It is in these first years that the personality change starts to show itself and one can clearly feel that they are losing the grip on their loved ones and everything is slipping right through.
It is in the first phase that short term memory is greatly affected but long term memory is intact.
One might be able to carry their job duties but as soon as the person suffering from Alzheimer's approaches the end of this phase, life takes another turn.
They have to leave their job.
It just seems like gradually death is climbing up the stairs.
The middle phase of this disease is the point that the individual is suffering from extreme mental confusion.
This deterioration snatches the different characteristics of one's life.
And during the transition from middle phase to late phase the person suffering from Alzheimer's cannot drive, cannot perform their ADLs, cannot walk, have bedsores, inability to go to the bathroom, urinary and fecal incontinence, unable to understand as to what is going on, severe bouts of aggravation, falls, inability to eat, decrease in immunity, and in certain cases Alzheimer's when progresses to centers of brain that controls respiration can lead to respiratory arrest.
Doesn't it sound like one is already dead without being dead? It just seems like the body is there with no soul, no connection, no identity.
It is so sad.
It is in these last phases that the person just goes completely bed ridden, with death slowly creeping towards them to end their misery.
At this point only conservative management occurs to treat any infections or other symptomatic conditions.
And finally one day the death allows the misery to end forever.
In Alzheimer's, there is aggregation of amyloid plaques and tangles of neurofibrils in the brain tissue.
This causes damage of nerve tissue and causes serious damage to the different centers in brain.
The areas that are completely destroyed in Alzheimer's are related to memory and thinking.
At this point in time, there are about 4 million people in US alone who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
The time span from diagnosis of this disease and death is about eight years on an average.
This disease does not know any boundaries, race, religion, caste or creed.
It hunts millions of people throughout the world.
It is so sad.
And we do not have any medicines to control or eradicate this deadly disease.
Now let us see as to what happens in between the time of diagnosis till death.
This disease is diagnosed in a person with complaints of loss of memory in which one starts to forget the recently learned things as the primary symptom.
We can simply break the time span from the diagnosis to death in three phases.
The first phase starts from the time of diagnosis and in this the individual shows lack of energy and lack of interest in everything that they might have loved.
Such a change in someone you love is like trying so hard to look through a pitch black space.
Life just seems to stop.
It is in these first years that the personality change starts to show itself and one can clearly feel that they are losing the grip on their loved ones and everything is slipping right through.
It is in the first phase that short term memory is greatly affected but long term memory is intact.
One might be able to carry their job duties but as soon as the person suffering from Alzheimer's approaches the end of this phase, life takes another turn.
They have to leave their job.
It just seems like gradually death is climbing up the stairs.
The middle phase of this disease is the point that the individual is suffering from extreme mental confusion.
This deterioration snatches the different characteristics of one's life.
And during the transition from middle phase to late phase the person suffering from Alzheimer's cannot drive, cannot perform their ADLs, cannot walk, have bedsores, inability to go to the bathroom, urinary and fecal incontinence, unable to understand as to what is going on, severe bouts of aggravation, falls, inability to eat, decrease in immunity, and in certain cases Alzheimer's when progresses to centers of brain that controls respiration can lead to respiratory arrest.
Doesn't it sound like one is already dead without being dead? It just seems like the body is there with no soul, no connection, no identity.
It is so sad.
It is in these last phases that the person just goes completely bed ridden, with death slowly creeping towards them to end their misery.
At this point only conservative management occurs to treat any infections or other symptomatic conditions.
And finally one day the death allows the misery to end forever.
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