Alzheimer’s was discovered a long time ago by Dr. Alzheimer as he examined patients that exhibited bizarre behaviors that could not be explained and were often placed into mental institutions. Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s is a fatal brain disease and one of the most common forms of dementia known today. If you or someone you know has Alzheimer’s they will experience the loss of many functions and usual abilities that they once were able to have normally, such as memory loss and intellectual capabilities and discernment.

Also, Alzheimer’s occurs in a series of stages, so it can often be difficult to catch as some of the symptoms coincide with normal things that tend to happen as people get older, such as having a hard time remembering things from time to time.

The first stage of Alzheimer’s presents absolutely no symptoms at all and that is why it can never be caught. It allows the person to function totally normally and patients who have this will experience no memory loss or any problems. That means that this will not be diagnosed by any health care professionals if taken at this stage because it is absolutely not presenting itself in any form. Chances are people will not even go and seek a health care professional at all because they will experience no impairments in stage one. That is why it is good to seek care if you have a relative who has Alzheimer’s, particularly a parent or grandparent, so you know that it is something to be aware of.

Stage two offers mild symptoms such as slight memory loss about names, places and where they put things. The brain may start to be affected by the disease in little ways and the patient will not remember things that used to be pretty clear to them. However, even though some symptoms begin to show, that does not mean that this will help it be diagnosed, because many people attribute the signs that appear in stage two as normal signs of aging and getting on in the years.

In stage three, similarly, there is mild cognitive decline, as well, but finally the signs shown are enough to maybe secure a diagnosis of the disease. For instance, patients will have a hard time remembering the names of family or friends and not be able to remember names of anyone new they encounter. This will create some performance problems at work or in social aspects as they will not always remember what to do or how to do it. At this stage, if this is really unusual behavior for the person, they can go and get it checked out and maybe even diagnosed.

In stage four, this is when Alzheimer’s is usually diagnosed as people cannot remember events, occasions or even the current events around them. They are unable to do mental math and they can no longer do tasks that require a lot of thinking or planning, such as paying bills or working on hosting a party. People forget their own personal history and often get depressed and melancholy.

Steps five and six only get worse as people can no longer remember current details about their life and usually get confused about the time, the place, the date, and their surroundings. As it gets worse, they will be unable to recognize the people around them or even know who they are themselves. They will need help getting dressed and will not be able to perform ordinary activities without assistance.