Dad’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s stayed hidden
from everyone until I took over the medical administration of my parents in 2015.
Once I found out, there was a deafening silence from most of the people I know
even though virtually all of them would add, “My _____ had Alzheimer’s…” But
there was little help, little beyond people sadly shaking heads. Or horror stories.
Lots of those. Even the ones who knew about the disease seemed to have received
a gag order from some Central Alzheimer’s Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this part
of my blog…
I came here today
to write an article on the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s. The
chart below summarizes it SO neatly, that I’m just going to share the chart
today.
However, I’m also
going to add a couple of things. First, my mom suffered from dementia due to
aging, possibly exacerbated by disease (vascular disease, as she was diagnosed
with congestive heart failure years prior to her death) or even mini strokes. An
old and dear friend of mine was diagnosed with ARD, AIDS-Related Dementia (“When
HIV spreads to the brain, it results in encephalopathy (a disease which affects
the brain's function), which causes dementia. The greater the spread of
infection in the brain, the worse the dementia symptoms become.”)
The chart above
says everything else I wanted to say.
I continue to learn
about Alzheimer’s, this hated and fearsome disease that took my father less
than a year ago. Let’s hope we can put down partisan differences in Congress
and get back to the work of serving the people and fund more effective research
on stopping it…if only: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/740/text,
https://alzimpact.org/press/press_release/id/144
Resource: https://medium.com/aginginbeauty/what-is-the-difference-between-alzheimers-disease-and-dementia-84a571b6b50d,
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/hiv-and-aids/hiv-and-dementia
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