1-800-531-5118
Professional or unpaid, caring for someone with dementia can become both frustrating and stressful. Dementia is a general term describing a person’s decline in mental ability. It is not a specific illness, but a combination of symptoms that are associated with a loss of memory and decreased thinking skills.
Ever since the rise of Alzheimer’s disease within the past 50 years, scientists have been trying to figure out what caused this explosion. Before the early 1900s the disease was either not recorded or simply nonexistent. The case of Alzheimer’s is especially interesting because although we are familiar with it, it is very new in developing countries. With any new disease phenomenon, researchers look at what factors in society changed in order to bring about the disease.
One of the most common conditions that elderly patients have to deal with is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease has been known for its memory loss. Once a person reaches his or her 60s, risks for such condition to take place rise up significantly. This degenerative condition affects at least 5 million elderly Americans. By 2050, 1 out of 8 individuals are predicted to have this condition. According to studies, Alzheimer’s rank 6th as the leading cause of death in the US, and almost 1 in every 3 elderly patients die with this type of condition.
