Have you or your dad ever had a 'senior moment'? Most of the time, this is just a joke about minor forgetfulness that can come with age. However, having a lot of 'senior moments' that interfere with your daily life can be an indicator of Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia. But exactly what causes Alzheimer's disease? What are the risk factors, stages and warning signs? Is it always fatal? What can someone who has the disease do to increase their quality of life? How can you tell the difference between Alzheimer's and another form of dementia? In this series of posts, I'll go over some of the facts about it, as well as what can be done to improve a patient's quality of life.
Doctors still aren't entirely sure what causes Alzheimer's disease. They have, however, discovered enough commonalities among patients to determine a set of risk factors. Some of them are:
- Age. As you probably guessed, a person's age plays a huge role in whether they will or will not develop Alzheimer's. While it is possible for someone to develop the disease as early as their 30s, this only accounts for about 5% of cases. It's estimated that one in eight people over 65 suffer from some form of the disease, with the risk nearly doubling every five years after age 65. When it comes to people 85 and older, an estimated 50% will have it.
- Family history. Scientists have discovered that people who have a sibling or parent with Alzheimer's are about twice as likely to develop the disease themselves than someone with no family history. There are still more 'risk genes' being discovered, but having the gene doesn't necessarily mean that a person will develop Alzheimer's; it's just something to for your doctor to keep in mind when determining a diagnosis.
- Heart problems. There is a strong connection between heart health and brain health, most likely because things like high blood pressure and high cholesterol can adversely affect both the cardiovascular and nervous systems. The same things your doctor advises you to do-exercise, eat a healthy diet, avoid smoking and excess alcohol consumption-for your heart can also help your brain.
- Gender and race. For whatever reason, women tend to develop Alzheimer's more often than men. Also, Hispanics are 1 ½ times more likely to develop the disease than whites, and African Americans about twice as likely. The sheer diversity among Asians and Pacific Islanders makes it difficult for scientists to come to any one conclusion regarding their risk.
- Head trauma. While hitting your head playing sports doesn't necessarily mean you're at a higher risk for Alzheimer's (good thing, otherwise I'd be out of luck!), studies have shown a connection between severe brain injuries and Alzheimer's because of the changes in brain chemistry the injuries can cause.
There have also been some studies that show a higher rate of Alzheimer's in people who haven't had much formal education. I'm not really sure why this is. I wonder if the brain chemistry that comes with Alzheimer's affects people early enough to where they wouldn't really be able to handle much beyond high school? I have no idea.
The answer to question number three above is, yes, Alzheimer's is always fatal. The disease kills brain cells and causes such a decline that a person with it is eventually unable to care for themselves in any way.
Now that you have an idea as to who is most at risk for Alzheimer's, I'll go over the symptoms in another post.
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