What is Alzheimer's Disease?
"I'm not stupid! I have Alzheimer's disease!"
-A person with Alzheimer's Disease
Dementia is the loss of intellectual functions such as remembering and reasoning. The loss is of a sufficient severity to interfere with a person's daily functions. Fundamental to our care program at Gianna Homes-Sursum Corda is an understanding of the dementing disease afflicting each of our residents.
Dementia is not a disease itself, but rather it is a group of symptoms that may accompany certain diseases or physical conditions. The degree of damage and rate of progression varies, depending on both the cause of the symptoms and the particular individual affected. Some of the more familiar diseases that produce dementia include Alzheimer's disease, multi-infarct dementia, Huntington's disease and sometimes Parkinson's disease. Dementia can also be attributed to stroke, old age (though not considered a normal part of aging), brain diseases, head injuries, excessive alcohol and drug use.
Dementia can be present in either acute or chronic forms. Acute dementias are metabolic or systematic in nature. They respond to treatment and the damage can often be reversed. Chronic dementias, on the other hand, rarely can be treated successfully, since the damage that creates the dementia is structural and irreversible and there is permanent damage to brain tissue.
Dr. Alois Alzheimer first defined Alzheimers in 1907. It is the most common of the dementing disorders, and is a progressive, degenerative disease that attacks brain cells and results in impaired memory, thinking, and behavior. The rate of progression, as with all dementias, varies from one person to another.
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