EP17: Ten Signs of Alzheimer's Disease with Melissa Batchelor, PhD, RN, FNP, FAAN

<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong><em>Ten Signs of Alzheimer's Disease</em></strong></span></p> <p><strong><em>“People with Alzheimer's can lose track of what time it is.”</em></strong><strong>— Melissa Batchelor, PhD, RN, FNP, FAAN (06:05-06:10)</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A lot of us have been home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe you're interacting with your older relatives more than usual and you may be noticing some memory problems. If you're worried about somebody having an issue with their memory and want to have them checked, what are the top 10 warning signs that you should look for?</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this week's episode, you’ll learn about:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Alzheimer’s and/or other dementia/typical age-related changes.</span></li> </ul> <p><strong>Part One of ‘Ten Signs of Alzheimer's Disease’</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first question is, what is dementia? It's a broad umbrella term, meaning that many different symptoms go into this term. People are going to have difficulty with their memory. They're going to have trouble with language, but also problem-solving and executive planning. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that accounts for about 60 to 80 percent of the different dimensions that we see. The other dementias that are most common are Lewy Body Dementia and Vascular Dementia. Those types of dementias tend to appear a little bit differently. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You may have one type or a mix of things, particularly if you have high blood pressure or you've had many strokes in the past, and you may have Alzheimer's, you may have a combination of Alzheimer's type dementia and vascular dementia. For the most part, these symptoms are pretty similar.</span></p> <p><strong><em>“They may tell you the same story or they may have difficulty finding the right word.” — Melissa Ba