Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic, slowly progressive, gradual in
onset, irreversible condition that destroys brain nerve cells
and other structures in the central nervous system. People with
Alzheimer’s disease slowly develop dementia —a loss of memory
and intellectual and social skills that result in confusion,
disorientation, and the inability to think, reason, and
understand. The decline in cognition and memory results in
activities of daily living to performed with increasing
difficulty. People with Alzheimer’s disease (and other
dementias) have symptoms that can change from day to day,
usually getting worse but occasionally seeming to get better.
However, people with Alzheimer’s disease do get worse over time,
especially regarding memory loss (which is the most common
initial symptom). Common symptoms include: - Difficulty with
short term memory (often with maintenance of long term memories)
- Forgetting recent events and conversations - Impaired
orientation - Misplacing items - Poor judgment and insight