The Early Alzheimer's Symptoms Are not always so easy to identify and often frequent memory failures or forgetfulness can generate doubts and confusion when thinking that they may correspond to the onset of this disease.
Even so, Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease involving loss of memory, brain deterioration and a clear dysfunction of all cognitive abilities.
Also, it should be taken into account that alterations in memory or other cognitive functions such as attention or orientation are not unique to Alzheimer's and may correspond to other situations or pathologies.
In order to clarify a little the characteristics that define Alzheimer's disease, in this article we will review what are the first signs and symptoms.
The main signs of Alzheimer's
In the face of the onset of cognitive difficulties or difficulties, the alarm signal about the possibility of Alzheimer's can be triggered.
However, there are many other variables such as stress, poor mood or concentration difficulties that can also lead to alterations in memory.
Thus, in order to clarify what are the main signs of the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer's Association Has created a list of the 10 most prototypical signs of the onset of this pathology.
These signs do not demonstrate the impregnable presence of Alzheimer's disease, since a medical diagnosis is required with the administration of a series of tests.
However, they are very useful to identify the possible presence of the pathology and the need to go to a doctor to make a diagnosis.
The 10 main symptoms:
1- Changes in memory that make everyday life difficult
It is probably the most common sign of Alzheimer's in early stages and is characterized by forgetting newly learned information.
Thus, while remembering information about the past may be preserved, remembering recent or learned things in the short term is often much more difficult for people who are beginning to suffer from Alzheimer's.
2- Difficulty solving problems
In the early stages of Alzheimer's, some people may experience noticeable changes in their ability to develop a plan or work with numbers. Thus, difficulties can be seen in following a cooking recipe or in managing family bills.
3- Difficulty performing normal tasks
Both daily tasks and work or even leisure can be performed with greater difficulty than usual.
4- Disorientation of time and place
It is usually more typical in stages slightly more advanced than the signs above, but people with Alzheimer's usually have difficulty remembering dates, annual seasons or the passage of time.
5- Difficulty in understanding visual images
It usually appears in later stages but in some cases having vision problems can be an early sign of Alzheimer's. Difficulties can be seen such as reading or judging distances.
6- Forgetting words
In the speech of a person with Alzheimer often lapses appear and"moments in which the words do not leave"frequently.
7- Placing objects out of place
People with Alzheimer's often put things out of place and later have many difficulties remembering where they placed them or what steps they performed the last time they used the object.
8- Decreased judgment
You can witness changes in judgment or decision making, as well as perform actions that were not usually performed or did not perform some that were frequently performed.
9- Loss of initiative
People with Alzheimer's often lose the initiative to perform actions even those that are playful or enjoyable previously.
10- Mood swings
They are not always present but in some cases the person with Alzheimer's may become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious.
In this article You can know the main consequences of Alzheimer's.
How does Alzheimer's affect the brain?
He Alzheimer's Is a neurodegenerative disease, ie consists of a pathology that when they appear in the brain of a person are beginning to degenerate the different regions of the brain.
In this way, the fact that determines forgetfulness, memory loss and dysfunction of the Cognitive abilities Lies in the degeneration of different brain cells.
It must be taken into account that cognitive failures (memory, language, disorientation, attention, etc.) that are present in Alzheimer's do not refer to a temporary or transitory situation.
So far we see that Alzheimer's degenerates brain , But now, how does it degenerate? What brain areas degenerate? What degenerates first and in what symptoms does it translate?
In order to understand the basis of this disease, it is important to take into account two different aspects.
On the one hand, it is important to know the neuropathology of Alzheimer's, since it will allow us to know what changes are going on in the brain cells (in neurons ) And how these changes translate into marked cerebral degeneration and cognitive failures.
On the other hand, it is important to take into account that the human brain is highly complex and its operation, saving the distances, can be equated with that of a computer.
Thus, although people usually generalize all cognitive abilities to an area of the body, ie the brain, each of the mental abilities corresponds to a certain brain regions.
Thus, just as each region of the body allows us to perform a determined action such as walking legs or hands writing, each region of the brain allows us to perform certain mental actions as well.
This means that certain regions of the brain are responsible for performing memory processes and allow us to remember and learn, other regions are responsible for controlling attention, others are responsible for controlling language, etc.
To clarify these two basic points that allow us to understand Alzheimer's and its first symptoms, we will explain later the neuropathy and the regions of the brain that are affected in this disease.
Alzheimer's neuropathy
By Alzheimer's neuropathy we understand all those neuronal changes that produce the disease in the brain.
As we have said, Alzheimer's is characterized primarily by degenerating brain regions, a fact that automatically translates into a series of cognitive dysfunctions and loss of mental abilities.
However, these pathological changes in the brain occur through a series of specific markers, that is, through the appearance of certain pathological signs that explain the progressive death of neurons and brain degeneration.
These changes can be divided into two major groups: microscopic changes and macroscopic changes.
Both the microscopic and the macroscopic are characterized by being pathological, ie the appearance of these changes in the functioning of the brain produce dysfunction and neuronal death, and do not provide any kind of benefit, quite the opposite.
1- Microscopic changes
The cataloging of these changes as microscopic refers to their own characteristics, ie, they are tiny modifications in neurons that can only be observed through microscopic techniques.
These small changes that are seen in the neurons affected by the Alzheimer explain the neuronal death and the progressive degeneration of the brain. The main neuropathological changes are:
A) Appearance of senile plaques
In this case, a collection of proteins known as B-amyloid .
What usually happens in Alzheimer's is that the brain begins to produce in excess of this type of proteins and they accumulate in the neurons forming a structure known as senile plaques.
The aggregation of these plaques on the neurons produces an alteration in its functioning and little by little it is causing its death, reason why the brain is losing a great number of neurons.
B) Neurofibrillary ears
At the same time, another protein known as TAU Also begins to occur in excess in the brain.
Thus, the excess of this protein is producing fibrils in the form of tangles that accumulate in the neurons and cause their degeneration.
C) Oxidative stress
This factor refers to a reduction of the defense mechanisms of the brain.
In this way, the brain begins to be unable to realize its antioxidant defense in a normal way before the high number of free radicals.
D) Neurinflammation
Finally, signs of inflammatory reaction appear in the brain in regions vulnerable to metabolic changes.
Thus, regions of the brain that are affected by the production of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles suffer from simultaneous inflammation, so damage and neuronal degeneration result in greater magnitude.
2 - Macroscopic changes
These changes refer to global changes in the characteristics and appearance of the brain affected by Alzheimer's disease.
In general, you can see two fundamental changes that allow to differentiate a healthy brain from a brain with Alzheimer's. These changes are:
A) Brain weight
Alzheimer's disease results in a loss of brain weight so people affected by this pathology presents a brain with a smaller weight than normal.
B) atrophy and widening of the brain grooves
The brain grooves are the different grooves or folds that the brain presents. These folds are seen in several brain areas, so there are several types of brain grooves.
In Alzheimer's disease, the furrows that appear most widened and atrophied are those found in the frontal lobe (the outermost and most frontal part of the brain) and in the hippocampus .
Regions of the brain affected by Alzheimer's
So far we have seen what happens inside a brain affected by Alzheimer's disease.
Now, these pathological changes we have described can occur in any part of the brain.
As we have discussed at the beginning of the article, each region of the brain is responsible for certain mental activities.
Thus, depending on the brain regions in which the changes we have discussed in the previous section, ie, depending on the parts of the brain in which Alzheimer's disease progresses, we can observe some symptoms or other .
So, what regions of the brain are affected by Alzheimer's degeneration?
In the first place, it must be taken into account that Alzheimer's disease is characterized by completely affecting the brain, that is, the pathological changes that we have just end up affecting practically the whole brain.
However, this happens only in very advanced stages of Alzheimer's where the person is totally affected by the disease and loses all its functionality.
Thus, in the early stages of pathology, only particular areas of the brain are affected.
This fact is especially relevant to know the course of the disease and, above all, to know what are the first symptoms most typical of Alzheimer's.
Thus, Alzheimer's disease is characterized by progressive degeneration of neurons in the hippocampus and in the Entorhinal cortex .
Subsequently, the temporal associative cortex is also affected and parietal , And the basal nucleus of Meynert.
With this first involvement of the brain areas we can already see, in a way, what may be the first symptoms of Alzheimer's.
The hippocampus is the main structure of the memory , That is to say, it is the zone of the brain where we store a greater part of the memories and the knowledge.
The entorhinal cortex, on the other hand, acts as a center for the redistribution of information to and from the hippocampus.
Thus, considering the two regions that are initially affected by Alzheimer's can already be predicted as the loss of learning ability and the occurrence of forgetfulness may be the first symptoms of the disease.
Thus, the deterioration of the Episodic memory Is the first symptom of Alzheimer's disease.
However, not all Alzheimer's cases have an identical onset and evolution, so we are going to go over the most important warning signs of the disease.
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