“Can Alzheimer’s disease be fatal? Explained simply for you to understand with high-volume #Alzheimersawareness #Alzheimersresearch #dementiafacts
Have you ever wondered if Alzheimer’s disease can truly be deadly? Let’s break it down in easy-to-understand terms:
What is Alzheimer’s Disease?
– A progressive brain disorder that affects memory, thinking, and behavior.
– Causes brain cells to degenerate and die, leading to a decline in cognitive function.
Can Alzheimer’s Disease Kill People?
– While Alzheimer’s itself is not directly fatal, it can contribute to complications that lead to death.
– Individuals with Alzheimer’s are more vulnerable to infections like pneumonia, which can be life-threatening.
– The disease can also cause complications like dehydration, malnutrition, and falls that may result in severe consequences.
Why It’s Important to Address Alzheimer’s Disease:
– Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
– Early detection and proper management can help improve quality of life and prolong survival.
– Research into Alzheimer’s disease is crucial to finding effective treatments and ultimately a cure.
In conclusion, while Alzheimer’s disease may not directly cause death, it can lead to complications that can be life-threatening. By raising awareness, supporting research, and advocating for better care, we can make a difference in the lives of those affected by this devastating condition. #endalz #healtheducation #neurologyexplained“
As it gets worse, Alzheimer’s patients lose the ability to chew or swallow food or water. The brain isn’t able to control the body and keep it alive.
Yes.
While most of us think of loss of memory when thinking of Alzheimer’s, that’s really only the beginning.
Alzheimer’s happens because the brain starts to break down. It cannot produce the amount of neurons needed for normal function, so the brain starts to atrophy — it grows stiff and less capable in the same a muscle would if you don’t work it.
Memory is one of the first areas affected (or at least the one that most people recognize at first) but it also affects the areas of the brain that make you able to make decisions (which can leads to people with Alzheimer’s making poor decisions that can kill them), the areas that make you take care of yourself (which can lead to death if people because unable to feed themselves or take care/recognize their own medical issues) and then slowly onto areas of the brain that can control the very functioning of your body.
Nutritional deficit and failing motor control (falling and swallowing) are both deadly to Olds. Plus you have the increasingly risky behaviors like wandering and leaving the stove on.
Yes unfortunately. It takes time and depends on the individual. Note that in psychology we don’t consider it as normal part of ageing but a disease 🦠
Yes. My mom died from it at age 63 with no other diagnosed illnesses. In the end, she couldn’t eat and seemed to just forget how to breath. The brain is responsible for more than just storing memories.
Not *can*. *Will*. Alzheimer’s is incurable, progressive, and inevitably fatal. It’s not even particularly treatable. We mostly just manage the symptoms – until recently there was almost nothing we could do to slow the advance of the disease, much less reverse to it. And even today it’s not great. It’s better than it was, but it’s still “hopefully buy you 2-5 years” not “fix it”. The problem is, [we’re still not 100% sure what causes it](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alzheimers-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20350447), which makes treating it hard.
People tend to think of it as not being fatal because so many other things kill those who have it first. Dementia opens you up to a lot of risks, many of which can be fatal.
But if nothing else gets you, the Alzheimer’s always will.
Alzheimer’s does kill people. I’ve worked in dementia care for 13 years now. Usually, it’s the inability to swallow anymore which causes death. People can lose the ability to feed themselves prior to that, at which point someone else will need to be responsible for feeding them. They can then lose the ability to chew their food and begin with swallowing problems. People will then see a speech and language therapist and be put on modified diets and fluids (pureed food, thickened fluids). But sadly, they will eventually stop swallowing at which point trying to give them fluids will cause choking. At that point a doctor would class the person as end of life and its just about pain and symptom relief for the next few days.
It’s a terrible and slow death. It’s not just becoming forgetful or losing your memory. The progression gets to a point where you can’t speak, hold your head up, control your body. In hospice it is truly the saddest thing to see families demand feeding tubes for Alzheimer’s patients. It just prolongs an unwinnable fight.
My grandfather’s official cause of death was renal failure. Eventually the parts of the brain that control things like kidney function shut down. The corresponding parts of the body shortly follow.
My dad died from it at 54. He was hospitalized for pneumonia because he couldn’t swallow properly and ended up having a seizure that killed him.
The sheer majority of AD patients will die of pneumonia, that is the main cause of death, and many others will die of other complications associated with being bed ridden, only few patients have lived long enough for the disease to degenerate the brain areas responsible for keeping you alive.
Not directly but yes. They eventually become bedridden and vegetative. At that point they die from infections from bedsores, weakening health from being bedridden, etc. So the Alzheimer’s doesn’t directly kill them from affecting vital functions. They die from declining health indirectly resulting from the illness.
Alzheimer’s is a build up of a plaque like material in the brain is it not? Why is a targeted ultrasound therapy not a viable option? Just vibrate and break the build-up apart.
It will. As it progresses the patient loses the ability to lose some reflex actions loke swallowing or coughing. A very common caise of death is pneumonia from a lung infection as they can no longer cough to stop the lungs being infected. Nor clear them once they are.
It’s the leading cause of death in the UK, and a leading cause of death in most high-income countries.
It’s death by 1000 cuts. It doesn’t kill you directly, it just enables other things to do the job. Some other conditions are like that too.
My mom started showing signs of dementia around 60. We didn’t realize at the time that’s what was happening. It advanced pretty quickly. She had multiple hospital admissions for dehydration because she forgot to drink. Eventually she just didn’t wake up one day. We made her hospice. She never woke up again but lasted and entire month with no food/hydration. She was only 68 when she passed. Such a waste
I used to work in a dementia care home as a RMN.
It is not the Alzheimer’s in itself that kills you but the symptoms it can produce.
You can lose your ability to chew or swallow water. Many patients with dementia will therefore aspirate food/water and die of a chest infection. Some patients will choke on food.
Some patients will forget how to eat/swallow, some will refuse to eat.
Some dementia patients will fall over a lot, break their hips and deteriorate quickly afterwards.
Patients with dementia can gradually lose all mobility and this will lead to general frailness and low immune systems.
A cold can develop into pneumonia, viral infections will not be recovered from as easily.
The majority of dementia patients I worked with died of chest infections. Hence many care home patients dying of Covid when it was rife.
Many patients will have Do not resuscitate forms that prevent being resuscitated and some will have advanced directives to prevent life preserving treatment.
My own mum is the early stages and it’s utterly terrifying.
You know how when you leave something out for long enough it becomes rotten and grows mold? That’s like the brain. As the person gets older, it starts to get mushy and not as good, but sometimes, mold can grow on it. In this case, the mold is something called “Plaque” and it bonds to neurons, damaging them. Without neurons, our memories become whack and we confuse things or hallucinate. Eventually, we forget how to eat or drink.
I have a TBI moderate to severe, in assisted living for it. Sorta. The patients here that have it as im in a group home for brain injuries and alz, dementia, TBI and hospice with brain injuries. People forget how to chew. So they blend up food, to where they can sip it – they have to be reminded – hell, when I cook food and dont want one resident whos completely gone and much older almost semi non-verbal we well, we don’t have to lock the front door because she literally forgot what a door knob is. Now this is my future, got mine at 28, 34 now. I aim to have my POA/brother get me to Canada where the right-to-die act is a thing for Dementia. After 5 years of seeing this (5 on June 29th), I dont want to become that.
yup. alzheimer’s is essentially the brain being destroyed. brain cells die, which obviously leads to memory loss and whatnot, and eventually will destroy ALL cognitive function. it’s like your brain is decaying
Yes. It is, essentially, how my grandmother died when she stopped accepting food and then lapsed into unconsciousness. She did have orders for no feeding tubes which if she didn’t maybe she could have been kept “alive” longer. But her condition was so advanced that I don’t think she would have ever been conscious again. When she stopped eating it had already been days since she last spoke.
Think of your brain like a tangled mess of Christmas fairy lights. Alzheimer’s shrinks your brain, and as it does, those fairy lights are affected and – one by one- the bulbs go out.
Maybe today it’s the bulb that holds where you left your keys. Tomorrow it’s the bulb that remembers someone’s name. The longer it goes on you lose the bulbs for basic daily function.
There’s no knowing which light you might lose next as each person is different, but you might lose the light that is in charge of your ability to chew or swallow which can lead to pneumonia. In this case the person might die from pneumonia, but Alzheimer’s would have been the wider reason for the infection (especially when your body is weakened over time).
Sometimes the light responsible for keeping your heart pumping or your lungs breathing goes out and blows the whole system, turning all the lights off.
Hope this helps.
That’s what my grandpa’s death certificate says. The hospice nurse described it as “complications from Alzheimer’s”.
Healthcare worker here. When someone has dementia, they often forget how to swallow. Food/ drink goes into the lungs (aspiration), and they get pneumonia and die. That’s obviously not the case every single time, but the most common course of illness. Or they just stop eating/ drinking altogether.
A short ELI5 answer is that the brain matter slowly melts away, sort of like a candle. Something around 1/3, 1/2, or more of it just goes away forever. The body removes the affected atoms and are discarded.
As it does, the various brain functions affected become erratic, falter, and eventually fail completely. Eventually, there’s a failure in something(s) essential for life.
This how it was described to me when I was young.
EDIT … google pictures of Alzheimer’s brains compared to healthy ones. It’s a truly depressing sight
Another interesting element of Alzheimer’s is the patient will often get a UTI and then because they have memory issues they don’t know it / mention it, the uti then turns into a bladder infection, then kidney infection and that’s often how many die. My best friend is a memory care doctor and I was so surprised by that fact.
My mom actually just died from Alzheimer’s at only age 59 just two months ago. It’s an extremely difficult experience to explain to someone who has never experienced it with a loved one, especially a parent. We were just lucky enough that she never forgot who anyone was and could recall memories from 30 years ago, but had a difficult time retaining new ones. She wouldn’t remember the layout of her house and repeatedly ask the same questions over and over, but could recite a Seinfeld reference on tv as she’s watching reruns.
You’re literally watching your loved one slowly become a shell of a human being. She lost her ability to speak, eat, or swallow her medicine overnight and you’re just essentially waiting for them to pass on at any moment. I had to take disability from work to process it. I have had a grandparent die from Alzheimer’s, but it was a completely different feeling than losing my mom to it.
It depends on how much you want to say the cause of death was the final event, or the Alzheimers disease.
So, what officially killed my mother was Sepsis, but she was only vulnerable to the sepsis because of the advanced Alzheimers, and because of the immobility that itself was a result of the Alzheimers. So as far as I am concerned, she basically died from the Alzheimers disease.
In my families case the alzheimers, led to incessent pacing, then falls. Inmy aunts case i think it was forgetting how to walk, then forgetting they couldnt walk. Then bedridden, and eventually pnueumonia.
I would like to let you all know the following direct experience.
When I realised my father was not himself was when he was 86.
We knuckled down as a family and followed the same care approach.
Aoid NO. Fractured memories and timeliness were his timelines and current reducing memory. So no
” That’s not what happened , I told you already..you told us that a 1000 times etc .it’s Is that so ? It’s 9 o’clock, I love that story etc
Good simple food regularly
Exercise every day. Walk walk walk , if he got agitated buckle up put on a coat / sunscreen/ umbrella / walk
Sleep whenever if possible
Good hygiene
Colourful tie or sweater everyday
Talk talk talk one to one
Then the ageing rythmn kicks in an accelerated manner and the physical outpaces the brain…its a care care care patience life for families..
However soon after, the memories, ” Benjamin Button,” and the joyous memories grow and grow and draw closer until alzheimers is a distant memory .
Love to you all
Yes. While we don’t control it consciously, processes like breathing, circulation, digestion etc. are still controlled by your brain.
Alzheimer slowly withers away the patients brain and at some point the person’s won’t be able to perform any of the above mentioned processes anymore.
Absolutely. Most people think of Alzheimer’s disease as just memory loss, but that’s a symptom of a much broader breakdown in brain function. Typically the first life-threatening issue is the inability to eat, but even if you provide intravenous nutrition, it’s not long before autonomic functions like breathing cease. By that time, the patient is unaware that they are dying, but it’s horrific to watch someone waste away like that.
It’s a neurodegenerative disease that current research suggests works similarly to a prion disease like BSE. It will kill you.
One day I hope a treatment comes out that can handle neurological conditions like Alzheimers. I doubt we’ll ever have a “cure” this century but perhaps similar to AIDS/HIV as long as you take a pill once a day you halt any progress of the disease in its track
Basically what other people are saying about eventually losing functions you need to keep going like the urge to eat, drink, etc. That is more indirect. If you’re asking for more direct means of killing people, there are numerous cases where the sticky protein buildup weakens a blood vessel leading to a brain bleed, which can be fatal.
It eats away at the brain pice by pice the patient lose thinking memories motor control and eventually death