What fails in the body?
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They forget how to breathe how to eat how to drink, everything that you need to survive on a daily basis all forgotten, sure you can put them in a ventilator or an IV or life support but what’s the point of living like that, so they usually just let them go at that stage
What fails is the brain.
The brain controls memory, which is the classic thing you think of with dementia, but it also controls inhibitions, motor control, balance, swallowing, breathing…everything your body does is controlled by some part of the brain.
Different parts of the brain fail at different times; so often memory or judgement are the first to go, and the more basic things like ability to chew and swallow food don’t get destroyed until later stages.
Dementia (Alzheimer’s is one kind, there are several) is organ failure in which the organ failing is the brain. If you are asking specifically how Alzheimer’s causes the brain to fail, well, lots of research has gone into that over the years and there is still uncertainty. But if you Google “Alzheimer’s brain scans” you’ll find you can literally see the brain shrink over time.
At mid stages mom didn’t recognize the woman in the mirror. Had to ask me her name.
Forgot all the usual stuff. Became very aggressive then lost the ability to walk talk, swallow. Had to have fluids thickened enough that staff could massage them down her throat. She would fight needles and pull out an IV.
Bed ridden for 2 years like that until her body finally gave out. Thank God. ALz is a tragedy.
Alzheimer’s is a really, really scary disease that makes your brain forget how to be a brain. It makes you lose your memory of really important things, and the longer you have it, the worse you can get. Sometimes, it makes people act really angry and mean, because Alzheimer’s can make people forget that hurting people is bad. Finally, after long enough, Alzheimer’s can make your brain forget to tell the other parts of your body how to work, and so the other parts of the body just… Stop working.
As a nurse I can tell you it’s a much more holistic reason. When you can’t think right, you forget to take your meds which causes health problems. You forget to call your friends for social support and so become isolated and lonely. You forget to shower so your hygiene declines and you get sick more.
Your brain is crucial to survival in ways far beyond basic physiology.
Typically dementia patients die of complications. If they can’t move much anymore, bed sores can set in and become septic. If they can’t swallow right, they may get pneumonia from the food or drink they inhale. They can get blood clots from not moving enough. Fluid overload from iv drips can stress their hearts. Malnutrition is rare thanks to iv or tube feeding but can happen. Same for dehydration.
Opportunistic infections are quite common in my experience. The nursing home could be seeing a mrsa outbreak or a nurse accidentally brought in COVID etc.
I rarely saw dementia itself kill. It was usually a complication of what dementia was doing to them that killed before the brain forgot how to maintain the other organs
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Aspiration pneumonia is one of the most common causes of death amongst people with Alzheimer’s disease. It is caused when food or liquid is breathed in and goes down the windpipe rather than the food pipe. It’s common in late stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s, when the brain starts slipping on how to do basic unconscious functions, like swallowing properly.
Between the old age, weakened physical and mental state, being in a senior care ward where diseases spread easily, etc, a bad cold or fall can be a lot more serious for someone with advanced Alzheimer’s.
Edit: there’s a lot of people in the same sad club. Misery loves company.
My Nan had Alzheimer’s for a really long time. Technically her cause of death was complications relating to the flu. What that really meant was that she got the flu and wasn’t eating for a few days and forgot how to swallow.
My grandmother died because she literally would forget to eat.
The only thing we could have done would be to put her on a feeding tube. She would frequently sit down to eat and then get up and forget to eat. Eventually she got so weak from not eating regularly that he body gave up
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