“How do people actually die from Alzheimer?”
In: Biology
The risks for old age are still common causes of death in Alzheimer’s, but made worse because it’s neurological condition that eventually impacts everything your brain controls (breathing, swallowing, incontinence). There’s [a ton of guidance for families dealing with it](https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/help-dementia-care/recognising-when-someone-reaching-end-their-life) So you often die from a respiratory infection (impacting the breathing), wasting (swallowing), UTI (incontinence), complications due to falls (balance), and sometimes from the effects of disorientation (e.g. wandering into the elements, being lost). Cardiovascular deaths and stroke are also extremely common.
Basically, if old age doesn’t get you, dementia will shut down the brain so that living becomes a struggle, and you can’t fight off everything that gets thrown at you (like an infection). Unfortunately Alzheimer’s is fundamentally a fatal disease, and there is no reversing it.
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