So does Alzheimer's kill you?

[trumad]

I know it flakes you out permanently but does it kill you? OR did Reagan just die from old age?

[Servo300]

1. Yes.

[trumad]

2. How...?

what gives out?

[Servo300]

7. I ultimately causes

slow deterioration of all mental and physical functioning, leaving the victim more susceptible to heart failure, etc., and infections such as pneumonia.

[Poiuyt]

12. Brain deterioration

The first symptoms are loss of voluntary brain functions like speaking. In advanced Alzheimer's you lose involuntary brain functions like breathing.

[mopinko]

3. your ability to swallow.

i think you could theoretically be kept alive with a feeding tube, but people have mroe sense.

[trumad]

4. That's sounds like somehting that's inflicted my wife...

and she's perfectly healthy...

[Teddy_Salad]

18. Ooh....you're bad!

Bend over!!!

[Bridget Burke]

5. Yes.

The brain remembers more than your wife's name & what you had for breakfast. It also remembers how to swallow & how to breathe. Until it stops remembering.

However, it's not always so direct. Other conditions can end your life unless they are fought aggressively. Sometimes it's better not to fight when the end result will just be more time spent in a vegetative state.

[Kolesar]

6. I think that connections between the nervous system &endocrine system fail

I vaguely recall that from a discussion I had with someone whose husband had a different form of dementia.

[Amaya]

8. Yes

It takes anyway the ability to think, talk, walk, and swallow. Most die of complications ... i.e. pneumonia or stroke. Dying very slowly. It's a horrifying thing.
I work with people who have Alzheimer's. It's the worst disease I have ever witnessed.

[Rosco T.]

13. It's hideous...

My wife's mother has Alzheimers and it's one of the most hideous things you can think of.. she was diagnosed 5 years ago and in the past 6 months has started an accerlated mental slide.

She's reached the point where all she can do is talk in disconnected sentences when she's coherent at all, most of the time all she can do is 'make noises', random syllables or just whines and crying. She seems to have some recogination of people around her, but not much.

Her overall health is suprisingly good.. and that's more of the obscene nature of this disease..

She hit 'full blown' Alzheimers 5 years ago... when she was 54.... the may have another 20 or more years of this torture to have to endure...

[cmf]

9. Yes - the complications will kill you

My grandmother died from pneumonia as a complication of Alzheimer's. The immobility associated with late-stage Alzheimer's disease leads to infection. (In my grandmother's case, she had aspirated vomit. It was a horrible way to die.) I think infection is the most common cause of death among Alzheimer's patients.

[David Zephyr]

10. Yes, Trumad, It Shuts Down Everything in the End.

The posts that preceed mine pretty much describe the progression of the disease. I wish more people knew about this horrific disease. Thanks for asking the question.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Please, many of us on this board have family members...

with this disease. My mother is in an advanced stage of Alzheimer's, and I won't burden you with the details, but it is horrific. You don't die from the disease itself, but when you can no longer swallow, a family decides between a feeding tube that prolongs the agony, or starving the patient to death, while keeping them comfortable. Or, death comes through the blessing of pneumonia, which is left untreated. Would that my mother had had the luxury of succombing to old age, instead of living in a purgatory, with a relatively healthy body, and a "flaky" mind with enough remaining wisdom to repeat over and over to her caretakers: "I'm dead."


On edit: I'm sorry; my reply was harsh. It's very difficult to deal with a loved one's having this disease, and you forget that not everyone has seen it up close.

[Lisa]

15. it's HORRIBLE ...

So sorry to hear about your mom. One of my high school classmates had to see her mother (a funny, witty lady who was a gourmet cook) stricken with Alzheimer's when she was only in her mid-40s. The family gave away her recipe books and carefully-collected kitchen utensils when it became apparent that her life had changed forever. She has been institutionalized for the past decade, and she doesn't recognize her kids anymore. The family has been through pure hell. My classmate had to give up a promising academic career in order to go to work and support her younger siblings.

[stevedeshazer]

16. Your reply is not harsh.

It is truthful.

What you describe is exactly right. I lost my father last year through the blessing of pneumonia. Exactly as you describe.

My thoughts are with you and your family. I know the hell.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. Thanks, Lisa and Stevie D --

[onecitizen]

14. It's like so many other neurological

disorders and/or diseases. You end up dying from complications caused by the disease which, IMO, skews the mortality statistics.

[boxster]

19. No offense, but this information isn't terribly hard to find.

Try http://my.webmd.com/content/article/71/81413.htm

In fact, it's on their main page right now: http://www.webmd.com

Reagan died of pneumonia, as has been reported ad infinitum.

[whosinpower]

20. He was 93 (I think that is what they said)

And as sad and tragic as alzeimers is, let us not forget that he enjoyed 83 years before his diagnosis.

There is only one constant in a persons life that transcends class, wealth, or power....we all die.

Ronald Reagan enjoyed a long fruitful life.....unlike many many others.(many others who were directly affected/murdered because of his policies BTW) How he died in the end makes no difference to me. The end result is still the same - as it will be for all of us.