Have you ever wondered if your memory problems are a sign of alzheimers? If you have,
you are not alone. It s one of the more common questions that patients ask me in the office.
We all have issues at one time or another with our memory but when do you need to be
concerned about it? Most memory changes are pretty normal with age and aren t anything to
be concerned about, but we do know that alzheimers and other forms of dementia
are becoming more common and something you should take serious. So, In this video we are
going to go over 10 early signs or symptoms of alzheimers that you should watch for.
It s estimated that in the world there are over 44 million people suffering from some form of
alzheimers or dementia. In the U.S., around 5.5 million people of all ages have Alzheimer
s disease with over 5.3 million of those, are over 65. But that means that Roughly 200,000
are younger and have what we call early-onset dementia. So, it is a problem that we need to
be concerned about and something that you should be paying attention to in yourself
and your loved ones. So what are those signs you need to look out for?
This is the most common symptom. You tend to start to forgetting things that you just learned.
You may lose track of important dates, names and events. You may start forgetting big things that
just happened. You start asking the same questions over and over again. We all use things that can
help jog our memory but you start not be able to function without your post-it notes or reminders
on your electronic devices. Or simply, your family starts to take are of those things for you.
Other signs of dementia are difficulty being able to plan or solve problems.
This is especially evident in things that require use or work with numbers.
Doing things like keeping track of monthly bills become a struggle as well as following
a simple recipe that you have made over and over. Details involving numbers seem to be
especially challenging and your ability to multi-task seems to diminish. You may still
be able to do these things but they seem to take a lot longer than they normally would.
Eventually a person with Alzheimer s may be unable to even recognize or deal with numbers.
When dementia starts to take hold, people find it hard to complete daily tasks.
This may include having trouble driving to a familiar location. You may start to
get lost or take longer getting home from a p lace that you should be familiar with.
Ordinary tasks that you have done over and over are now a challenge. Even doing things like
Organizing a grocery list or even remembering rules to a favorite game can become a struggle.
When Alzheimers begins to take hold, one of the first things to start to change is the ability
to keep track of dates, seasons and the passage of time. It s common for all of us to forget what
day it is, but when that turns into a constant issue or we even start forgetting bigger things
the month, seasons or even years then that is not normal. You may feel more disoriented,
you can get lost more easily and forget where you are or even how you got there.
Often you may start to feel more anxious and inpatient with the
passage of time or have a hard time with things don t happen immediately
Having worsening vision problems can be a sign of Alzheimer s.
This can lead to balance issues and difficulty reading. You may start noticing that your ability
to judge distance starting to change. Walking, doing daily tasks with your
hands like preparing food and even driving can become dangerous. The ability to be able
to distinguish colors also starts to change causing an additional challenge to driving.
This is when you start to struggle with your vocabulary and ability to express yourself.
Those living with Alzheimers find that following or joining conversations begin to be more of a
struggle. Normal conversations start to be a challenge to the point that you may stop
mid-conversation forgetting what you are talking about or repeating yourself.
Maybe you notice that you have a hard time finding the right name of objects that you
should know or even call them the wrong thing. More often though you may start
withdrawing from social situations as you just don t feel comfortable participating in them.
We all have issues with losing things but when you start to have dementia you lose the ability
to retrace your steps to find them. With that you often will end up putting things where they
don t belong. Maybe you put your hair dryer in the dresser or your keys in the refrigerator. It s not
uncommon then to get irritated or angry about it and even accuse people of stealing things.
Unfortunately, one of the things that we see is somebody starts to make poor decisions.
This can be mistakes in money like giving away things that you normally wouldn t
do. It may be some rash decisions that are not characteristic of you. You may notice that
personal hygiene starts to slip with showering or keeping clean starts to become less of a concern.
You may start dressing innapropriately for the weather or not dressing at all.
You may make dangerous mistakes like leaving the stove on.
As memory and other things start to slip you may notice yourself or a loved one starting
to withdraw into themselves. Hobbies that you used to love, just don t have the same interest.
Interactions with those who you used to are no longer fulfilling. You may be watching
TV more than usual or notice that your motivation is down. Many times this starts because of the
inability to talk with people but this progresses and starts to become a problem on its own.
This is one of the hardest things that we start to see. This is when they begin to
change who they are. They can start to become confused, suspicious, depressed or anxious
and often fearful. We will see they may have mood swings or become irritable or aggressive.
They start to become more attached to the known and
comfortable and have a harder time with change. If you are noting these things in yourself or
a loved one, it s really important that you get in to your doctor to be evaluated. Just because
you may have one or two of these symptoms, it doesn t mean that you have dementia, but you
should have things looked at to make sure nothing else is going on and to get an accurate diagnosis.
Most memory changes that we notice are normal changes of aging but if they start
interfering with your day to day life, it may be more than that. Hopefully now
you at least have a little more information to know whether you should seek more help
Most of this information was compiled by the Alzheimer s Association here in the United States.
This is a great group that researches, advocates for and educates in regards
to the disease we call Alzheimer s. So if you want to get more information on this,
it is a great place to start. I ll put a link in the description below so you can learn more.
Well, thanks for spending these few minutes with us and learning a little more on how you can take
charge of your health. Here at FamilyMed, we are passionate about helping you be informed
so that you can make the right decisions for you and your family. So as we part,
we want to wish you well in your health journey and look forward to seeing you in the next video.