Alzheimer's in 2008 (part 1) - written by Sebastien Prince

Alzheimer's Disease in Alzheimer's Facilities:

Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease which progressively assaults the brain and hinders memory capabilities. The acts of thinking and reasoning are also affected by Alzheimer's disease which is the most common form of dementia.
Discovered by Alois Azheimer in 1906 while studying the brain of a woman having suffered from dementia before her death.

His main discovery was similar to plaque mixed in the neurons of her brain. These plaques were later called amyloid plaques which are still known as the main origin of Alzheimer's disease.

Beta-amyloid are proteins which are of the abnormal type and which attack the brain's nerve cells by poisoning them, thus resulting in Alzheimer's disease and institutionalization in an Alzheimer's Facility. Science still only has theories about how these proteins are created by the body.

Age is the Greatest Risk Factor in Alzheimer's Disease.
The main factor in developing Alzheimer's disease is your age. Though Alzheimer's disease can be developed at any age, sometimes as early as in the late thirties, the risk grows expodentially after your sixty-fifth birthday.

In fact, your chances of developing Alzheimer's is up to 50 of Caucasians in Alzheimer's facilities.

Diagnosing Alzheimer's.
So far, the only way to get a 100 of sufferers who still live at home as well as to those living in an Alzheimer's facility.

When Alzheimer's hits close to home.
All families react differently when faced with the fact that a loved one was hit by the disease.

For a couple, it might be noticing that their spouse is behaving in a different or weird way, has a hard time performing simple usual tasks or has frequent memory lapses.

Symptoms are often noticed in the same manner by extended family members who see that their loved one has lost some of their mental abilities since the last time they met.

The situation is different for elderly who live on their own and don't have many visitors. In this case, the first symptoms can go unnoticed and it can take larger, more traumatic occurrences, such as forgetting one's address for the Alzheimer's disease diagnostic to be made.

Not all cases need to be transferred to an Alzheimer's facility.

The 10 Warning Signs of Alzheimer's.
Knowing how to recognize the early signs of Alzheimer's can help both the victim and it's family deal with the situation earlier in order to guaranty security and better treatments to their loved one. Here they are according to the Alzheimer's Association Fact Sheet on Alzheimer's disease:

1. Loss of recent memories
2. Having a hard time finding words or finishing sentences.
3. Lack of judgment.
4. Loss or misplacement of daily used things such as glasses, keys... and their placement in unusual places.
5. Unusual mood swings for no obvious reason.
6. Unusual lack of discipline for doing daily routine things which now require prompting.
7. Difficulty in performing habitual tasks
8. Changes in basic personality traits such as becoming confused, paranoid or afraid.
9. Loss of orientation regarding both time and space.
10. Difficulty when doing some abstract thinking.