sister, or parent, has the disease. This situation is called familial, which means there could be a genetic factor involved, or perhaps family members were exposed to something in the environment that caused the disease (Gwyther, 2000).The disease can occur in people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, however, most people diagnosed with Alzheimers are older than 65. This is called early onset and represents less than 10 percent of Alzheimers cases. When a younger adult has Alzheimers disease, the issues related to care, financial planning, work, family, children, etc., can be very different than with older adults with the disease (Gwyther, 2000). The youngest person ever diagnosed with Alzheimers was 27 years old, this is a very rare case (Gray-Davidson, 1996).Symptoms of AlzheimersEveryone has forgotten where theyve parked the car or the name of an acquaintance at one time or another. And many healthy individuals are less able to remember certain kinds of information as they get older. The symptoms of Alzheimers disease are much more severe than such simple memory lapses. Alzheimers symptoms affect communication, learning, thinking, reasoning, and can have an impact on a persons work and social life. For example, a person with Alzheimers forgets whole experiences and rarely remembers them later. A person with age associated memory problems forgets parts of experiences and often remembers them later (Gwyther, 2000). Typically, loved ones notice gradual- not sudden- changes in a person who is in the early stages of Alzheimers. It usually takes months to realize that something serious might be wrong (PlanetRx). At its onset, Alzheimers disease is marked by simple forgetfulness, especially of recent events or directions to familiar places. People with Alzheimers may have personality changes, such as poor impulse control and judgement, distrust, increased stubbornness, and restlessness (Alzheimers.com).The next stage of the disease ...
