How do people actually die from Alzheimer’s Disease?
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You basically turn into a vegetable that’s fed through your stomach until your body stops working for one reason or another. I used to sing softly to my end stage Alzheimer patient and it always made her smile as I hooked up her tube feeding. One day after a few years she just stopped living and it was a peaceful end. The “real” her had been gone for years at that point.
You basically turn into a vegetable that’s fed through your stomach until your body stops working for one reason or another. I used to sing softly to my end stage Alzheimer patient and it always made her smile as I hooked up her tube feeding. One day after a few years she just stopped living and it was a peaceful end. The “real” her had been gone for years at that point.
Usually, you didn’t die from the alzheimers itself. Usually, if you have it, you’re also an elderly person where slips, trips, and falls can be fatal. Well, it turns out that being elderly and having a diminished mental condition is not a great combination for avoiding falls, so a great many ultimately die from breaking bones after falling. Others often die of other conditions unrelated to the Alzheimer’s because, again, they’re old and just more likely to die of other conditions in general (heart attacks, strokes, cancer, viruses, etc.)
That said, Alzheimer’s will still eventually kill a person given enough time. It’s essentially when the brain’s neurons start dying at a rapid pace, and all the vital connections that make you “you” are broken. Typically, this starts in the more evolved parts of the brain. Places associated with memory are the first to be affected. This causes severe memory loss. Then, it starts moving into the more primitive areas of the brain, those that affect emotion and reasoning, causing irrationality and mood swings (often anger). Finally, the destruction of the brain eventually proceeds to the most primitive and vital (in terms of survival) parts of the brain, such as the brain stem, which controls things like your heart beat, digestion, temperature regulation, etc. Once these areas start losing neurons, the brain can’t keep these vital processes going any longer, and you will eventually die.
On a more opinionated note. Alzheimer’s is awful. To me, it and other diseases like it are the worst diseases affecting humanity. Other diseases may kill more people, but Alzeimers is the only one that robs you of who you are before killing you. It’s not content with just the death, it has to destroy the memory of everything that you once loved and the person your family and friends once loved before doing so. It’s my greatest fear in life, and I wouldn’t wish it upon the worst of people.
Usually, you didn’t die from the alzheimers itself. Usually, if you have it, you’re also an elderly person where slips, trips, and falls can be fatal. Well, it turns out that being elderly and having a diminished mental condition is not a great combination for avoiding falls, so a great many ultimately die from breaking bones after falling. Others often die of other conditions unrelated to the Alzheimer’s because, again, they’re old and just more likely to die of other conditions in general (heart attacks, strokes, cancer, viruses, etc.)
That said, Alzheimer’s will still eventually kill a person given enough time. It’s essentially when the brain’s neurons start dying at a rapid pace, and all the vital connections that make you “you” are broken. Typically, this starts in the more evolved parts of the brain. Places associated with memory are the first to be affected. This causes severe memory loss. Then, it starts moving into the more primitive areas of the brain, those that affect emotion and reasoning, causing irrationality and mood swings (often anger). Finally, the destruction of the brain eventually proceeds to the most primitive and vital (in terms of survival) parts of the brain, such as the brain stem, which controls things like your heart beat, digestion, temperature regulation, etc. Once these areas start losing neurons, the brain can’t keep these vital processes going any longer, and you will eventually die.
On a more opinionated note. Alzheimer’s is awful. To me, it and other diseases like it are the worst diseases affecting humanity. Other diseases may kill more people, but Alzeimers is the only one that robs you of who you are before killing you. It’s not content with just the death, it has to destroy the memory of everything that you once loved and the person your family and friends once loved before doing so. It’s my greatest fear in life, and I wouldn’t wish it upon the worst of people.
In the case of my grandma in the UK, she was euthanised which sounds awful but all she did was scream in terror 24/7 in the home she was in. Horrible existence towards the end.
My grandmother (89) has alzheimers and every time I go to visit her in her assisted living place (every 6 weeks or so), it’s more depressing. She is more confused, thinking her late parents and husband are still alive and more stubborn about little things (like changing her stained sweater for a clean one). We’re going again on mother’s day and I feel some dread thinking about it and then guilt that I feel that way. She’s physically quite healthy so I wonder how many years this will go on for, getting worse and worse. 😔
In the case of my grandma in the UK, she was euthanised which sounds awful but all she did was scream in terror 24/7 in the home she was in. Horrible existence towards the end.
My mom was diagnosed about 3 months ago. Early Onset Dementia
It is SO hard.
She still knows who her immediate family is for now – but she doesn’t remember my best friends whom I have known since 9th grade that she say every day and even now at least a couple of times a month (I am 45 now), she didn’t know who my partners mom was at my oldest son’s 18th birthtday last week.
I went to help my dad break down some boxes for a new TV stand he bought for the basement, so we were taking apart the old one, and putting together the new one and breaking down the boxes for recycling, and my mom got SO upset.
It became a fight about why we were replacing things just because it was older, and when we were going to replace her. she kept trying to call my brother to come pick her up, and saying how she was just going to leave because we didn’t want her here and would be replacing her next.
No matter how much we tried to reason with her, show her the new stand, tried to remind her SHE picked out the new stand with my father, it didn’t matter.
I left their house that evening and I broke down crying when my partner picked me up. It was emotionally and physically exhausting. My Dad lives with her alone, and I don’t know how he manages.. or how much longer he will be able to. He has to take over the cooking, cleaning, shopping, everything.
He wants to sell the house and move to something smaller and more manageable but that is a whole other fight.
Part of me wants it to progress to the point where she doesn’t remember who we are – so my dad can place her in a home where she can get 24/7 care by proffesionals daily… then of course I feel guilty and like a terrible daughter because I think that way sometimes…
I am devastated, and no one else other than my dad understands. Even my brother hasn’t seen how bad it gets. I have no one to talk to about it and it’s crushing.
My grandmother (89) has alzheimers and every time I go to visit her in her assisted living place (every 6 weeks or so), it’s more depressing. She is more confused, thinking her late parents and husband are still alive and more stubborn about little things (like changing her stained sweater for a clean one). We’re going again on mother’s day and I feel some dread thinking about it and then guilt that I feel that way. She’s physically quite healthy so I wonder how many years this will go on for, getting worse and worse. 😔
My mom was diagnosed about 3 months ago. Early Onset Dementia
It is SO hard.
She still knows who her immediate family is for now – but she doesn’t remember my best friends whom I have known since 9th grade that she say every day and even now at least a couple of times a month (I am 45 now), she didn’t know who my partners mom was at my oldest son’s 18th birthtday last week.
I went to help my dad break down some boxes for a new TV stand he bought for the basement, so we were taking apart the old one, and putting together the new one and breaking down the boxes for recycling, and my mom got SO upset.
It became a fight about why we were replacing things just because it was older, and when we were going to replace her. she kept trying to call my brother to come pick her up, and saying how she was just going to leave because we didn’t want her here and would be replacing her next.
No matter how much we tried to reason with her, show her the new stand, tried to remind her SHE picked out the new stand with my father, it didn’t matter.
I left their house that evening and I broke down crying when my partner picked me up. It was emotionally and physically exhausting. My Dad lives with her alone, and I don’t know how he manages.. or how much longer he will be able to. He has to take over the cooking, cleaning, shopping, everything.
He wants to sell the house and move to something smaller and more manageable but that is a whole other fight.
Part of me wants it to progress to the point where she doesn’t remember who we are – so my dad can place her in a home where she can get 24/7 care by proffesionals daily… then of course I feel guilty and like a terrible daughter because I think that way sometimes…
I am devastated, and no one else other than my dad understands. Even my brother hasn’t seen how bad it gets. I have no one to talk to about it and it’s crushing.
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