Ten Warning Signs of Alzheimer's Disease

Welcome to This Is Getting Old Podcast. I'm your  host Melissa B PhD and today we're going to be   talking about what is the difference between  Alzheimer's and Dementia and Normal Aging. A   lot of us have been home during the COVID pandemic  maybe you're interacting with your older relatives   more than usual and you may be noticing some  memory problems and so what we're going to do   today is talk about what are the top 10 warning  signs that you should look for if you're worried   about somebody having an issue with their memory  so that you can get them in to a provider to have   it checked out so the first question is what  is dementia and basically dementia is a broad   umbrella term which means that there are a lot of  different symptoms that go into into this term for   dementia and there are a lot of different things  that happen people are going to have difficulty   with their memory they're gonna have trouble  with language typically you know nouns and   naming are one of the first things that will see  them having issues with but also problem-solving   and executive planning and executive planning  is the ability to kind of plan and execute an   event whether it's recipe made forever or you know  what's the correct order to putting your clothes   on so but Alzheimer's is a type of dementia and  it actually accounts for about 60 to 80 percent   of the different dimensions that we see the  other dimensions that are most common are Lewy   body dementia a frontal lobe dementia and dementia  related to Parkinson's but also vascular dementia   so those kind of those types of dementia tend  to appear a little bit differently for example   with Lewy body dementia you may see someone I'm  having trouble walking or falling more something   where the frontal lobe dementia the frontal  lobe of your brain is kind of the stop sign   part so these may be people that can't that they  don't have a lot of good impulse control anymore and then somebody with vascular dementia typically  already has heart disease so you may have one type   or you have may have a mix of things particularly  if you have like high blood pressure you've had   many strokes in the past and you may have  Alzheimer's so you may have a combination of   Alzheimer's type dementia and a vascular dementia  and at the end of the day for the most part these   symptoms are pretty similar and so we're just  going to talk about the top 10 signs and things   that you should look for if you're concerned about  somebody's memory so first one is that this memory   problem needs to be significant enough that it's  going to interrupt this person's ability to take   care of themselves every day so one of the most  common things and Alzheimer's is that you aren't   able to remember new information so they're really  good with things that happened a long long time   ago so that long-term memory is intact and so they  can tell you everything about their childhood but   they can't tell you what they had for breakfast or  what you were just talking about five minutes ago   so they may be forgetting important dates they  may be asking you the same information over and   over or may be telling you the same information  over and over or you may begin to see then rely   a lot more on memory aids and memory aid to me is  basically a compensatory strategy I have tons of   them but basically this would be if you started  seeing sticky notes appear on the refrigerator   you know don't forget to do this don't forget to  do that and as long as people can do that and it's   working for them well it is a warning sign they  still have the ability to use those compensatory   strategies so we need to let them do that versus  normal aging would be like you occasionally forgot   somebody's name or you might forget an appointment  but you do remember it later so the second sign   to look out for our challenges with problem  solving so this is when someone has trouble kind   of developing a plan for work or an activity that  they want to do or they may have trouble following   a familiar at recipe so the recipe they're known  for forever they may not remember it's two eggs   or three eggs or have water how long I supposed to  cook it or they may have trouble keeping up with   their monthly bills because I just don't remember  that they're supposed to deal with that or they   may have a lot more difficulty concentrating and  it just takes them a lot longer to do things and   then it did before versus you know with a normal  age-related change this might be someone who just   has an occasional error in their checkbook I  kind of do that too sometimes so don't jump to   conclusions just because one of these warning  signs might apply to you or your loved one the   third sign is difficulty completing familiar tasks  at home or at work or even out when you're playing   so sometimes people have trouble figuring out how  do I Drive from you know to a particular location   someplace they've been a lot or how do they manage  their budget at work or maybe even remember the   rules of a game that becomes more difficult and  that's different than like normal age-related   change where you may need a little bit of help  with the settings on a microwave or you need   help trying to record a television show which is  different than just trying to turn the television   on so those are a little bit more complex tasks  that and if I go to my mom's house I still can't   figure out how to use their remotes so again  yeah if they're in their own home and this is   a new problem that you're noticing you just need  to be aware of it the next thing is confusion with   time and place and so people with Alzheimer's  can lose track of what time it is again this   is one of those things in the middle of kovat a  lot of us are probably you know having trouble   keeping up with time and it's just because our  schedules and the calendars that we live and die   by they just are in a completely different way  different saying right now this will be someone   who didn't know that it was summer outside when  it's and they would tell you it's winter or they   may be telling you as 1987 or telling you a  story from 1987 when it's 2020 so they also   may have trouble remembering how they got where  they are so those aren't that's another group of   warning signs compared to normal aging you might  get confused about what day of the week it is but   you know to get your calendar out or pull out  your iPhone you can figure out what day it is   so lucky for all of us encoded you know we can  figure out what day it is the next warning sign   is there they have trouble understanding visual  images and spatial relationships so let's break   that down sometimes just having visual problems  is a sign of Alzheimer's they may have difficulty   reading judging distances or determining color and  contrast and this also could cause them problems   with driving this is different than having like  a true visual impairment related to either a   cataract or glaucoma or some age-related macular  degeneration those are truly visual problems   but the visual part of the brain is impacted with  Alzheimer's when you're young you basically have a   hundred and eighty degree peripheral vision and by  the time you're 65 that comes in about 45 degrees   but what happens with Alzheimer's disease is that  visual field gets smaller and smaller so by the   time somebody's in very advanced dementia they  basically have like my eye or they have monocular   vision that then goes down to binocular visions if  you were to put your eye call these your dementia   eyeballs if you were to put those on and think  about if that was all that you could see you can't   see anything on either side of you and you know  what I tell people with my work is it also means   they can't see the plate that's sitting right  in front of them so in very advanced dementia   this is when we would see people reach across the  table to eat somebody else's food and everyone's   like but your food is right here in front of you  but you think about you'd have to look down to   see that so we have to adjust them and we'll get  to that layer with advanced Alzheimer's this is   right now what we're talking about is early signs  so the next one is having new problems with words   and speaking as well as writing so this may you  may see this as somebody who's having trouble   following a conversation or they be telling you  a story and stop in the middle of it and can't   figure out you know what they were going to do or  they may tell you the same story over and over or   they may have difficulty finding the right word  and typically this is a noun so they might be like   you know hand me that you know thing over there  it's kind of a small thing you can talk on it to   call people and you're late you mean your phone  they're like yes that's my phone so that kind of   describing all around the nail it's called circum  Lucien so you may see a little bit more of that   and the other part of that is in normal aging you  might just have trouble finding the right word so   a little bit different when someone's beginning to  have memory issues so the seventh warning sign to   pay attention to if someone made misplace things  or they may lose their ability to retrace their   steps to find it so we've all misplaced things  before but typically you and I do this with my   kids I'm like you need to retrace your steps and  figure out where you know where you were when you   might have lost this thing what happens a lot of  times with with people with early Alzheimer's is   they begin to get a little paranoid and so they  may begin to hide things like I'm gonna hide my   purse or I'm gonna put my purse you know in this  safe place and then when they go to find their   purse they can't find it and then they blame you  for stealing it so there's that's just another   example of how they may actually put something  away but then they can't remember where where they   put it and this would occur you know more and more  frequently over time versus you know normal aging   is when someone kind of they misplace things but  they are able to retrace their steps and lucky for   us you know we always find what we were looking  for in the last place we looked which I've always   thought was the hilarious pun alright number eight  may have decreased or poor judgments and so this   gets back into the decision-making piece so they  may not they may think they have more ability to   take care of themselves than they actually do they  may have poor judgment when it comes to dealing   with money this also makes them very susceptible  to scams because you know particularly if they're   isolated in their home someone calls them on the  phone and they may end up giving them you know a   large sum of money when because they just didn't  have the judgment to know that they were being   scanned or you may see this as let less paying  attention to their own personal hygiene so they   may stop showering you know brushing their hair  that type of stuff when they used to be a very   well-kept person and that's different than normal  aging where you may make a bad decision every once   in a while but you're you're pretty good with  knowing what your limits are ix sign is when   people withdraw from work or social activities  so this may be someone that you know you just   haven't seen for a while and in Kovach that's kind  of all of us but these folks would have begun they   would have begun to remove themselves from all  their hobbies all their social activities any   different projects or going going out of the house  and they may even begin to have trouble following   like their favorite team and they begin to avoid  social situations because they are very aware   that they're having trouble with their memory and  they're afraid that you're going to find out about   it so the way this typically would show up for me  one of the parts of the brain that that remains   intact is this ability to do we call social  chitchat so you can be sitting in yeah I can   be talking to to an older adult and everything's  fine we're having the social conversation how's   the weather yeah how your kids well blah and then  I say to them okay I need to begin to ask you some   questions ask these questions of everyone do you  know what today's date is and they would fire back   like in super angry mode like a over reaction  to what the question is but what I did is I   just began to ask them questions that they feel  like I'm going to find out that they're having   issues with their memory that's a whole nother  conversation about how to handle that type of   behavior but this may be somebody that I mean they  can go through a doctor's visit for 15 minutes and   have and act like everything's fine so this is why  it's hard for primary care providers to pick up on   this and they need the history from the family  caregivers around some of these warning signs to   help provide a full picture of what's happening at  home and how well they're functioning at home but   again if you start we're gonna do another podcast  about how to actually communicate about this that   you may not be able to sit in the room with that  person then tell that provider because it's going   to make make your loved one mad and versus you  know for normal aging sometimes people they just   don't have as much energy as they used to so they  may be more tired after a work day or after going   to family and social engagements that they are so  very much socially engaged and then the top the   last warning sign is changes in their moods or  personality and so this could be someone that's   very confused they could be very depressed they  could be anxious they could be scared and then   they can be they're a lot more easily upset  when they're out of places that are part of   their comfort zone so prior to Coba this might be  somebody that lives you know in their home alone   they can manage things pretty fine but they go  out to eat with the family and there's a lot more   noise in that environment and they just have like  this explosive like moment and so okay those rapid   changes in mood you know or even their personality  where they used to be really outgoing and now   you know they don't want to go out and see anyone  compared to normal aging when people develop very   specific ways of doing things and they can come  pretty irritable when that routine is interrupted   so I had two thoughts want us you know people that  are in the middle of story and forget what they   were going to say I think that could be you know  an ad D type issue and you know this have been   very specific ways of doing things I'm like yeah  that could just be a OCD so again it really has to   do with the big picture of that person over their  lifetime how well have they been able to do things   and then you know as they age you know are you  seeing some of these these warning signs and again   they are only warning signs they're not diagnostic  we'll talk another show about how how you actually   talk to somebody about Alzheimer's and then how we  actually get to a diagnosis but for now these are   your top ten warning signs and hope you've enjoyed  this session thank you for joining me today for   this is getting old if you'd like to know more  you can subscribe to my youtube channel and if   you have any questions or relate a topic you'd  like to hear from me about just let me know thanks

Channel: MelissaBPhD

Views: 228,806

Rating: 4.8121061 out of 5

Keywords: dementia, alzheimers, alzheimer's disease, ucla alzheimer's and dementia care program, caring for loved ones with dementia, warning signs of dementia, warning signs of dementia or alzheimer's, early warning signs of alzheimers, Melissa Batchelor, This Is Getting Old Podcast, normal aging process, normal aging, normal aging vs dementia, aging faster than normal, healthy aging, healthy aging for seniors

Id: P2M712JmZDA

Length: 16min 17sec (977 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020