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Living Over Aging is dedicated to a holistic concept of aging that incorporates a person's whole body, mind and spirit. This year our themes are related to lifelong creativity through the sacred arts. Stay tuned for updated information and features!
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Living Over Aging: Helping you age creatively day by day for a lifetime.
Elder Journal
Here is our current Elder Journal focused on early stage, early diagnosis and early onset dementia. Please go to our Elder Journal section for columns from past months including one on older driver safety!
Elder Journal By Paul Takayanagi
Currently more than 4 million Americans suffer with Alzheimer’s disease. With more people living longer, future victims of the disease may number in the double digit millions. The families, friends and other caregivers who suffer with them already number in the tens of millions. While there still is no cure, there is much hope that scientists will unlock the mystery of Alzheimer’s in the next decade. We must be a voice for more research into finding a cure or at least more effective treatments for this challenging disease.
There is no greater fear on the part of many people than the prospect of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. The clinical term for Alzheimer’s is “dementia” which many people find fearful because they associate it with the word “demented” or “crazy.” People with dementia are not crazy but they are very confused, disoriented and forgetful. Alzheimer’s is just one of a number of dementia-related disorders that can affect people. Others include Parkinson’s Disease and long term alcohol abuse. The interaction of certain medications can also bring on “dementia-like” behavior. If you suspect that a loved one has dementia then it’s important for that person to be assessed by medical professionals as soon as possible because some causes of demented behavior, like medication-related causes, can be effectively treated.
While the majority of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease are older adults over the age of 65 years, a full ten percent are under aged 65. The Baby Boomer population, the largest generation to ever move through society, are approaching age 60 years. That means that a good percentage of the “under aged 65” persons with Alzheimer’s disease are already Baby Boomers. The reason why the numbers of persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is expected to increase is because the Baby Boomer generation is 76 million strong and projected to live longer lives than the generations of older persons before them. Alzheimer’s disease will probably continue to be an illness that primarily affects older individuals, particularly for those over aged 80 years. In twenty years, when the Baby Boomer generation is reaching those years, there will be many more persons with dementia unless there is a cure or effective treatment for it.
This is an opportunity to understand Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in a more significant way. When you research and read the literature on dementia, the word “early” stands out in a number of terms. There are three primary and similarly sounding “early” terms that are actually very different in definition. These are; Early Stage dementia; Early Diagnosis of dementia; and Early Onset of dementia. Let’s look at each of these a little closer to understand them better.
The Early Stage dementia term refers to the beginning stages of the disease process that all people who are diagnosed with dementia experience regardless of how old they are when their symptoms begin to appear. This means that whether a person is 55 years old or 85 years old and has dementia, they will experience the early stages of the disease. The stage may last a short time or many years but every individual who is diagnosed with dementia will go through it. It is categorized with mild to moderate forgetfulness and the beginning of changes in behavior and functional abilities. The other stages of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are referred to as the moderate stage and the late stage.
The Early Diagnosis of dementia is when a person is diagnosed with having Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder in the early stages of the disease process. This also does not refer to age at all. A younger or older person can be “early-diagnosed” and this may be important as there are more and more treatments being provided to persons with dementia that are primarily effective in the early stages of the disease. It used to be that persons with dementia were rarely “early-diagnosed” and primarily diagnosed in the moderate to late stages of the disease. The change to “early-diagnosis” is probably one of the most significant developments to occur in the field in the past ten years. There are reasons, many of them social, for why diagnosis in the past was primarily done in the moderate to late stages of dementia but there are very real benefits for having an early-diagnosis now.
The Early Onset of dementia refers to when a person is diagnosed with dementia under aged 65 years. These are the ten percent of all persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, mentioned above, who have not reached their 65th birthday yet. When persons over 65 years old are diagnosed with dementia, they are determined to have “late onset” dementia. The early and late onset categories helps healthcare and service providers to understand the kinds of care and diverse issues which a person and their families and caregivers must contend with depending on her or his age. There are often very different clinical and social circumstances involved with the onset of dementia when a person is 55 years old or if he or she is 85 years old.
To give you an illustration, let’s meet two individuals in these categories of diagnosis:
Mitchell is a 58 year old, former engineer. His symptoms of dementia began to appear three years ago when he was still working full-time, married with a 17 year old son living at home. In a relatively brief amount of time, categorized by dementia that is early onset, his symptoms accelerated rapidly to the point where he could not continue at his work. His mood swings and behavioral issues have alienated his wife and son. His young son, initially, could not understand what was happening with his father and was very bitter. Now, three years later, Mitchell’s son is older himself and better able to cope with the dementia of his father. Mitchell’s wife, Beth, has experienced great stress coping with her husband’s dementia and taking over 100 percent of the household responsibilities. Mitchell still lives at home and is diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) which is a rather new and not well understood form of dementia.
Helen is an 87 year old widow living in an assisted living facility in a local community near her adult daughter and her family. Helen moved into the facility ten years ago after she experienced a debilitating heart attack. Symptoms of dementia began to appear about five years ago. She seemed stable for quite some time, often characterized by late onset dementia, but her symptoms have been progressing more lately. Fortunately, the large facility she lives in has a dementia-specific “neighborhood” and her daughter is expecting her to relocate to it sometime in the next year. In the time being, she and her family, provide Helen with continuous visits and attention. Since they trust the care she is receiving at the facility and Helen is acclimated to it, their stress levels have been reduced greatly over time.
While there have been a number of promising treatments and research projects that have been developed recently, there is still no cure for Alzheimer’s at this time. There are, however, very important and high quality services and programs for people who are affected by it and their families. Throughout the nation there are support groups for persons with both early stage and early onset of dementia and social day programs, assisted living communities and skilled nursing facilities that specialize in serving persons with Alzheimer’s and related disorders in all its various forms. In addition there are organizations and agencies serving the families and caregivers of persons with dementia specifically. Many of these programs and organizations are listed in the telephone book under “Alzheimer’s care” or you can go online to Eldercare Locator at http://www.eldercare.gov or call the toll-free Eldercare Locator service that operates Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, and can be reached at 1-800-677-1116.
Please take time to remember persons with Alzheimer’s disease and their families. It’s a disease that can affect persons of any race, color, creed or class. But with the proper care, many persons can live a good quality of life. They deserve nothing less than that because it’s projected that in the future, if trends continue, every family in the United States may have a loved one diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder.
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