Occasional forgetfulness can be normal, especially in times of great stress, but when should we start to worry? What signs should alert us to a disease like Alzheimer’s? In Spain, according to data from the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), it affects some 800,000 people.
Most cases begin with episodic memory problems (remembering moments, places, emotions, and contextual details of life episodes that can be recalled very clearly). people with Alzheimer’s they have more capacity to remember the past than they did yesterday.
In Spain, the SEN estimates that more than 50% of cases that are still mild (prodromal forms) are undiagnosed. It is important to detect the disease early because it allows better planning of care and better quality of life.
Early symptoms of Alzheimer’s may include:
Difficulty performing tasks that require some thought but used to be easy, such as keeping accounts, playing card games, and learning new information or routines
Getting lost on known routes
Difficulty remembering the names of similar objects
Losing interest in activities you previously enjoyed and having a different mood
lose things
Personality changes and loss of social skills
As the disease progresses, the symptoms are more noticeable:
Change in sleep patterns
Having delusions, depression, agitation
Difficulty reading or writing
Forget episodes of your life and lose track of who you are
Arguments, violent behavior, hitting
Loss of ability to recognize danger
Using wrong words, incorrect pronunciation, speaking in confusing phrases
Withdraw from social contact
Every year around 40,000 new cases of this disease are diagnosed in Spain, of which more than 90% correspond to people over 65. The chances of developing this disease increase exponentially with age, with the proportion of people suffering from this disease doubling every 5 years.
Thus, while the number of newly diagnosed cases of Alzheimer’s disease in people between 65 and 70 years of age is between 1 and 3 people per year per 1,000 inhabitants, it rises to 14-30 cases per 1,000 in people between 80 and 85 years. This means that Alzheimer’s is already the first cause of disability among the elderly in our country and that it continues to increase: the progressive aging of the population will mean that by 2050 the number of patients will rise to almost two million people .
Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease linked to aging. Age is the most important risk factor. There are also genetic factors. But there are others linked to the lifestyle that it is in our power to modify. Practicing physical exercise on a regular basis, not smoking, avoiding alcohol abuse, controlling body weight, following a healthy diet and keeping blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol at adequate levels reduces the risk of suffering from this disease.