“How do people actually die from Alzheimer?”
In: Biology
[removed]
Alzheimers disease is causing the brain to slowly get eaten away to nothing. And while it is not initially fatal it does create a lot of fatal complications. Your body does not work without a brain. So most people die from easily preventable conditions for someone with a working brain. Things like exposure from being too cold, dehydration from not drinking water, blood clots from sitting too long in the same position, malnutrition from not eating, etc. When something hurts or gets uncomfortable your brain will automatically do something to improve the situation. But for people with advanced Alzheimers they may not do this and let something uncomfortable fester into something deadly.
In extremely advanced Alzheimers it does become deadly in itself. The brain is helping to regulate body temperature, heart rate, breathing, etc. If the brain starts malfunctioning in these areas people may die as a result.
It slowly removes your brains ability to do anything. A common one in care homes where they can make sure sufferers are otherwise fed and cleaned is pneumonia due to the cough reflex notnworking anymore. So bacteria and other tiny particles you would otherwise cough up get stuck in the lungs.
If a person with Alzheimer’s is not being taken care of they might do something dangerous that ends up being fatal. Like wandering off in the winter barefoot in pajamas, and freezing to death. Those who are being taken care of usually die in malnutrition because they eventually forget how to swallow. They could be fed with a tube and IVs but at this point it would just prolong their suffering and it raises a lot of ethical questions.
My grandma had Alzheimer’s and by the time she got to this point, I honestly think it was better for her to go. She was scared to death nonstop. She didn’t recognize anyone anymore. Imagine like a mix of a cornered wild animal and an extremely anxious little child who was put in a strange place with complete strangers. It broke my heart.
Before that, she was getting agressive and stuck in her childhood traumas, reliving them and hallucinating 24/7. She had an extremely traumatic childhood so it was pretty bad. She was getting into dangerous stuff all the time like climbing out the window, started to chopping wood, throwing glasses, broke the TV… Someone had to watch her every step, all the time and it was still hard because how do you calm down someone who’s reality is that the russian soldiers are coming and she has to hide, or that she just gave birth and can’t find her baby?
It is brutal for everyone. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. I just hope she’s at a better place and feels safe.
One point to consider is that with all the modern medical technology, extending life is common. The most common age related causes of death have been cured to some extent. Artificial hearts, kidneys, livers extend lives for decades. Rx Medications decrease numerous diseases and extend lives from conditions that would’ve otherwise been terminal including several heart diseases, diabetes, cancers and other organ failures. Alzheimer’s is more prevalent now only because these other more common causes of death have been medically lessened. Bottom line- we have to die of something… the human body is evolutionary only built to survive 100 years or less. Since modern medicine has extended the life expectancy of these above organs and conditions , the brain is obviously the last organ to deteriorate and one we are unable to currently repair or transplant. So it’s only logical that deterioration of our brain IE: Alzheimer’s is now a more leading cause of death.
It’s macabre to acknowledge – but our medical advances in extending life has equally created the sad and lengthy process of death known as dementia. The days of dying in your sleep or having fatal heart attack or quick illnesses from which we don’t recover are much less common now… so the mercilessly slow and cruel suffering of our brain deteriorating is now a more common cause of death.
They sort of don’t – they die from other things that they’re no longer capable of dealing with.
This could be obvious stuff like “wandered into traffic” or “walked out of the house at 3am and got lost on a cold night”. Traffic accidents and exposure aren’t technically dying from Alzheimer’s, but that’s kind of like saying jumping off a cliff doesn’t kill you – it’s hitting the ground that does it.
More commonly, though, it’s dying through the complications caused by other conditions. Imagine not remembering you’re thirsty, and your kidneys shutting down through dehydration. Or not knowing how to cough and choking on the phlegm in your throat.
My father got to the stage where moving was confusing and hard work, and when he did get up he would risk falling over and he couldn’t see the point of moving around otherwise so he would lie stock still in bed. He had some physios come in and try to do some exercises with him during the week but he died of a blood clot one weekend.
My MIL had some form of dementia/Alzheimers.
She eventually forgot how to eat and had to have a tube placed. She made it home for about a week with the tube. She aspirated during a feeding one night and the next morning her O2 saturation was 80%. We called an ambulance and got her to the ER where they put her on a ton of oxygen but her breathing wasn’t improving. She was constantly on the max amount of oxygen they could push until the doctor came in and said she isn’t going to recover and we need to call family to say goodbye.
She went from totally fine, to the hospital, to gone in two weeks.
For my mother, she forgot how to eat. We could have put her on a tube to feed her and keep her body alive, but her mind was already long gone so we elected not to.
It’s basically because the brain is slowly eroding, and with that you start to slowly loss the ability to do certain things because the parts of your brain that control those actions get damaged.
Latest Answers