Alzheimer's Disease - the Early Stages

Because people like to believe that a little forgetfulness is normal when getting older the early stages of Alzheimer's are not always easy to recognize even though Alzheimer's is currently the most common form of dementia and can take months or even years to full progress into the final stages.

Attacking a person's memory, ability to reason, make sound judgments, language skills and the ability to perform simple daily task there is currently no cure. The amount of time spent in the first stage is different for everyone with Alzheimer's as is the rate of progression.

The first signs of Alzheimer's can begin to show themselves very slowly. The first signs are the hardest to diagnose the disease with as there are several other things that can cause some of them. When they get more severe and even dangerous is when it becomes a problem. The ability to reason is lost and so is the ability to do everyday things.

There is a slow decline in the cognitive skills required to perform basic tasks and a showing of memory problems. In the early stages of Alzheimer's disease a person will become confused very easily and may not recognize familiar surroundings. Things that were once taken for granted like writing a letter to a love one or balancing the check book are now a challenge for the person with Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's patients may begin to forget the names of those close to them and even to forget words. They will begin to make up words or in some cases stop talking all together in order to prevent mistakes. They can even forget their own histories, person events that happened recently and other events that are currently occurring in the world.

Since they are forgetting they could also begin to repeat themselves several times in the same conversation. They don't remember having asked questions or getting the answers already. Expressing themselves becomes difficult as words are forgotten and expressing thoughts is hard to do now. They will start to be unable to make plans; organizational skills will suffer along with the ability to perform logical thinking.

They will start to let others decide things for them as they are no longer able to make decisions on their own. Symptoms will gradually worsen.

Physical problems may begin to appear although at this point they appear as mild problems in co-ordination. Frustrated with the changes someone in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease may begin to exhibit mood swings and signs of depression.

Those in the early stages of Alzheimer's can still function well enough to retain their independence and are not yet very reliant on others.

Sources:
http://www.helpguide.org/elder/alzheimers_disease_symptoms_stages.htm
http://www.ec-online.net/knowledge/articles/earlyalz.html
http://www.alzheimer.ca/english/disease/progression-3stages.htm