The 5 stages of Alzheimer's (and their characteristics)

There are many different diseases directly linked to the aging of the body. But, without a doubt, the most relevant group at a clinical level is that of dementia, a serious and progressive loss of mental faculties that, according to official data, affects about 50 million people around the world, especially over 65 years old.

And of all these cases, it is estimated that between 50% and 70% correspond to Alzheimer's, a neurodegenerative disease that makes up one of nature's cruelest disorders. A pathology that has no cure and that causes a serious deterioration of memory and cognitive abilities, ultimately, when the brain, due to the damage to neurons, is no longer able to maintain stable vital functions, cause the death of the person.

It is sad to think how, despite being the most common form of dementia in the world, it is still one of the great unknown to Medicine. Therefore, all we can do now is know the manifestation of this disease so that, in case life puts us in the situation of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's, we know how the situation will evolve.

For this reason and with this intention, in today's article and in the hands of the most prestigious scientific publications, we will, in addition to exactly define the clinical bases of Alzheimer's disease, describe the characteristics of each of the stages or phases of this pathology, since in Alzheimer's, cognitive deterioration occurs in the form of successive stages. Let's see its nature.

What is Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's is a neurological disease that constitutes the main cause of dementia in the world and is based on the progressive deterioration of brain neurons. It is a pathology in which these nerve cells in the brain gradually degenerate until they die, a condition that gives rise to the traditional symptoms of the disorder.

This disease, responsible for between 50% and 70% of dementia cases, causes a slow but continuous loss of mental capacity that, in turn, manifests itself with damage to physical, behavioral, cognitive and social skills. Appearing practically always after the age of 65, Alzheimer's causes the patient to lose the ability to live independently.

Alzheimer's, after several years of affectation, it causes a serious deterioration of memory (first of short-term memory and, already in advanced stages, of long-term memory), behavior, control of emotions, sociability, reasoning, speech, physical skills, orientation, understanding, reasoning ... And, when the neurological damage is so severe that the brain can no longer even maintain stable vital functions, it causes the death of the person.

And although we know that there are different risk factors that increase the chances of suffering from this disease, its exact causes are a mystery. We do not know the exact origin of this pathology. That is, we do not know why some people develop it and others do not. And this is a big problem, as it prevents us from developing prevention strategies.

What's more, as with, unfortunately, all other neurological diseases, Alzheimer's has no cure. It is true that currently there are medications and drugs that help to temporarily improve symptoms in order, basically, to ensure that the person maintains their independence and autonomy for as long as possible.

But beyond this, there is no way to stop Alzheimer's disease from progressing to its fatal outcome. Hence, above all, the most important thing is to be prepared and know what such a situation will bring us. And in this context, there is nothing better than knowing how this disease is going to progress and through what stages. And this is what we are going to see now.

What are the stages of Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease. And as such, it is based on a progressive deterioration of brain neurons. And this slow but continuous damage translates into affectations in the cognitive state that makes it possible to differentiate different stages depending on what the symptoms and clinical manifestations are. And then we are going to analyze precisely this. Let's see what are the phases or stages of Alzheimer's.

1. Presymptomatic Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease begins long before the first symptoms. Also known as the preclinical stage, this phase can only be diagnosed or detected by neurological research tasks, through the identification of beta amyloid, a distinctive protein of the disease.

And it is that neither the person nor their environment will perceive any change at the cognitive level or any clinical sign. This first phase can last several years and even decades, so much of the research in this field is based on finding new biomarkers and proteins and developing genetic studies that allow the identification of Alzheimer's in this first stage. All this would allow progress in the treatment of this disease.

2. Mild cognitive impairment

By mild cognitive impairment we understand all those alterations in thinking skills and memory present in the elderly. It is based on subtle changes in cognition that, although they are typical of aging, can also be a sign that Alzheimer's has gone from being in the preclinical phase to begin to show symptoms.

Be that as it may, it is the set of signs linked especially to memory lapses that, in addition to not being strange to the person or to their environment, since they are interpreted as something typical of age due to simple neurological aging, they have not yet been recognized. considered relevant or different from Alzheimer's. Not all people with mild cognitive impairment have Alzheimer's.

In any case, we must be alert to these signs, because in the event that, unfortunately, it is this disease, other symptoms will appear at this stage, such as difficulty in determining the steps necessary to complete a task or problems in judging the time it takes to get something done. If it is Alzheimer's, after this clinically not very relevant stage, we will enter the three stages that are defining of it.

3. Mild Alzheimer's

Mild Alzheimer's is the first stage of full clinical relevance and the one in which the majority of Alzheimer's cases are diagnosed. The disease is evident both for doctors and for the patient's environment, who see clear signs of memory loss and cognitive abilities that are causing them to have problems to function in their day to day life.

Be that as it may, in this mild phase, symptoms are less severe and often difficult to perceive. These are the first manifestations of cognitive impairment, with problems that are basically limited to difficulties in remembering daily tasks and in maintaining full autonomy and independence. This stage lasts approximately 3 years from the beginning. The main cognitive loss occurs in short-term memory.

In addition, the patient may experience other signs such as personality changes (especially being irritable when they have not normally had this attitude, feeling little motivated by things they liked, seeing themselves as socially inaccessible ...), problems expressing their thoughts and organizing their ideas , difficulties in solving problems, loss of short-term memory (it is common for them to ask the same question several times in a short period of time), tendency to lose things, problems with orientation and tendency to get lost.

4. Moderate Alzheimer's

After this mild stage, one inevitably enters the moderate Alzheimer's stage, one in which clinical symptoms become more intenseTherefore, a significant loss of autonomy is observed, requiring daily care by family members or personal caregivers. This stage usually lasts between 3 and 5 years and the most important cognitive losses occur at the level of communication skills, orientation in space and manual skills.

In this sense, the patient will show more and more confused (at both spatial and temporal level), they will present an increasing memory loss (since they will begin to see long-term memory is affected, so you will forget important details of your life and make up stories to fill the empty spaces in your memory), they will show more pronounced changes in their personality, they will behave in unusual ways and, as we have said, they will lose in largely autonomy.

5. Severe Alzheimer's

And after this moderate stage, we unfortunately enter the last phase of the disease. Severe Alzheimer's designates the last and most severe stage of the pathology, which, with a duration of about 7 years, is based on the loss of long-term memory, the total affectation of the personality, the loss of the senses, the loss of the organization of time and the loss of locomotion ability.

During this stage, therefore, physical, sensory and cognitive abilities are totally lost. The patient does not communicate, he has lost his short- and long-term memory (his memories have almost completely vanished), his physical capacities have greatly diminished and he no longer has any autonomy at all. And, unfortunately, the fateful outcome comes when the brain is unable to maintain stable vital functions and the patient dies from the disease.