How do people actually die from Alzheimer’s Disease?
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When not cared for/monitored properly, Alzheimer’s patients are similar in behaviour to young children.
They can put the stove on and forget about it, hurt themselves accidentally and forget about it, forget to eat.
If they have a headache, they might take an aspirin. But aspirins take a bit to work, and they might forget they already took one, so they take another. And another. They could accidentally overdose without remembering even a single pill.
When you get sick, you just wait it out a day before going to a doctor. Someone with Alzheimer’s may forget they were sick the day before as well, and treat the 10th day as the first. They’ll never visit a doctor if they don’t remember feeling a bit ill for longer than a few hours.
Alzheimer’s creates an environment where someone can die from dozens of seemingly unrelated causes
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When not cared for/monitored properly, Alzheimer’s patients are similar in behaviour to young children.
They can put the stove on and forget about it, hurt themselves accidentally and forget about it, forget to eat.
If they have a headache, they might take an aspirin. But aspirins take a bit to work, and they might forget they already took one, so they take another. And another. They could accidentally overdose without remembering even a single pill.
When you get sick, you just wait it out a day before going to a doctor. Someone with Alzheimer’s may forget they were sick the day before as well, and treat the 10th day as the first. They’ll never visit a doctor if they don’t remember feeling a bit ill for longer than a few hours.
Alzheimer’s creates an environment where someone can die from dozens of seemingly unrelated causes
Most deaths are from Alzheimers patients not being able to take care of themselves and having accidents or untreated illnesses. A good nursing home can help this but without being able to get any help from the patient it becomes an impossible task to take care of them. A small infection for example which could be deadly for a senior citizen without medical attention might go unnoticed for days if the patient is not able to complain about pains. Even leaving a seriously ill Alzheimer patient unattended for a few minutes at night could cause you to miss them jumping on their bed falling over and braking bones, which for seniors could be fatal as their body does not heal the same way as adults.
But even with the best of care Alzheimers is still deadly on its own. The disease is destroying the nerve cells so the patients start losing neural function one by one. It does start with memory and coordination but eventually it spreads to more vital functions. When patients start losing control over their throat muscles controlling speech, swallowing and breathing they need constant attention and even then typically get associated complications such as acid reflux into their lungs and pneumonia. But even if they survive this the disease can spread to the nerves controlling their breathing causing them to just stop breathing.
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Most deaths are from Alzheimers patients not being able to take care of themselves and having accidents or untreated illnesses. A good nursing home can help this but without being able to get any help from the patient it becomes an impossible task to take care of them. A small infection for example which could be deadly for a senior citizen without medical attention might go unnoticed for days if the patient is not able to complain about pains. Even leaving a seriously ill Alzheimer patient unattended for a few minutes at night could cause you to miss them jumping on their bed falling over and braking bones, which for seniors could be fatal as their body does not heal the same way as adults.
But even with the best of care Alzheimers is still deadly on its own. The disease is destroying the nerve cells so the patients start losing neural function one by one. It does start with memory and coordination but eventually it spreads to more vital functions. When patients start losing control over their throat muscles controlling speech, swallowing and breathing they need constant attention and even then typically get associated complications such as acid reflux into their lungs and pneumonia. But even if they survive this the disease can spread to the nerves controlling their breathing causing them to just stop breathing.
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Inability to swallow safely, which leads to aspiration pneumonia. Some just literally stop eating or drinking, which can still be attributed to swallowing difficulties, or their brain disease is so severe that they fail to recognise food/drinks or the need to consume them anymore. I work in dementia care, it’s a cruel disease.
Edit: “Disability” to “Inability”
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