How Would I Know If I Have Alzheimer's?

Do I have Alzheimer’s? How would I know? What if I knew I did, but forgot about it?

Alzheimer’s is form of dementia that is a progressive, degenerative brain disease that destroys brain cells, causing memory loss, thinking/behavior problems and may become severe enough to affect speech, memory and a social life. Today, there is still no known cure for it.

There are three stages and should you even feel like you’re suffering the mild stage, you should immediately get yourself checked-up.

Mild – This is the stage that is most usually missed by the patient’s family. You start misplacing things and you forget some minor detail from earlier on in the day. You also tend to be less energetic. There’s a diagnosis for Mild Cognitive Impairment if your forgetfulness starts to alarm you.

Moderate – You may forget several important details, but should at least still be able to care for yourself. Simple tasks are still doable, but for the more complicated ones, like driving or cooking, you may need assistance. It is crucial at this point to start seeing a doctor about it.

Severe – This article stops making sense to you. Fact is you might not have been able to read it all that well --- it’s either you have read it and have forgotten about it, or your brain simply can’t access the part of your brain that knows how to read. The progression of the disease at this point is drastic, control of bodily functions go out the window and you may start forgetting who your loved ones are, or why they’re there in the first place.

While it’s silly to assume that we can all just go out every afternoon to get a cognitive impairment test, it’s even sillier to think that Alzheimer’s won’t affect you. As clichés go about prevention and cure --- there are several, more accessible means of decreasing the likelihood of Alzheimer’s, only if you don’t forget to remember.

Take this test to see if you have Alzheimer's!