4 Ways to Distinguish the Characteristics of Dementia with Alzheimer's?
Is this a sign that you will experience Alzheimer's? Before worrying too much, let's recognize the difference in senility and Alzheimer's first.
Senile and 4 characteristics
The term senile or dementia refers to the symptoms that affect memory, thinking power, and the ability to interact with others so that it interferes with daily activities.
About 40% of people over the age of 65 can normally experience memory loss due to the aging process which is considered normal. But it is different with senile and Alzheimer's, both are not normal aging processes.
Then, how are the characteristics of senile dementia and the difference with memory loss that normally occurs in the elderly?
1. Memory loss
In normal older people, mild memory loss may occur. For example they will forget what happened about a year ago.
Whereas senile people experience severe memory impairment to disrupt their daily activities such as forgetting events or conversations that just happened.
2. Difficulty communicating and difficult to remember words or names
Normal parents may forget the names of people they rarely meet and sometimes have difficulty remembering what they want to say.
Conversely, people who are senile can experience severe memory problems, such as forgetting the name of the family or the closest person and stop repeatedly to find the words they want to say.
3. Difficulty doing daily activities
People who experience senility can experience difficulties when carrying out daily activities such as often getting lost when driving, difficult to solve problems, difficult to make plans, and often confusion.
4. People who are senile are also prone to experiencing psychological problems
People who are senile are prone to experiencing psychological problems such as changes in behavior or personality, depression, anxiety, often feel scared, irritable, hallucinations, and sleep disorders.
Different senile and Alzheimer's
After knowing the characteristics and differences of senile and normal forgetfulness that often occurs in the elderly, the next question is whether senile and Alzheimer's are the same?
Although both of them seem to be the same, actually they are different. The difference is senile is a symptom, while Alzheimer's is a disease or its cause.
An example is like someone who has symptoms of strep throat, the exact cause can vary as allergies, viral infections, and so on.
Likewise with senile. As the example above, senile is a symptom, while the causes can vary. Causes of senility include Alzheimer's disease, Huntington, Parkinson, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob.
Besides senility can also be caused by a deficiency of certain vitamins, thyroid problems, infections such as HIV, stroke, mental disorders such as depression, the use of certain drugs for a long time, and head trauma.
There is a type of senile dementia that can be cured, which is senility caused by a lack of vitamins by meeting vitamin needs. Senile disorders caused by thyroid disorders can be cured by overcoming thyroid problems.
While Alzheimer's is a type of senile that can't be cured. There are only drugs to relieve the symptoms.
In the normal aging process, a person's brain will shrink a little and lose nerve cells. However, in people with Alzheimer's, many nerve cells die.
As a result, sufferers of Alzheimer's will have difficulty in terms of language, thinking, remembering, social interaction, even to carry out daily activities.
It can be concluded senile is one of the symptoms of Alzheimer's, but not all senile people experience Alzheimer's.
Therefore, it is important if you or your relatives who experience symptoms of senility go to the doctor to ascertain the cause and get the right treatment.
0 Response to "4 Ways to Distinguish the Characteristics of Dementia with Alzheimer's?"
Post a Comment