The most recent data says Texas ranks third in the U.S. for the number of people living with Alzheimer's.
Early detection of the disease is important. But how do you tell the difference between early warning signs of Alzheimer's and normal aging?
KERA's Sam Baker talked with Dr Diana Kerwin, a geriatric medicine physician with Texas Health Dallas.
Dr. Kerwin: There's some anticipated changes in your memory and brain function as you get older, but it should never be severe enough that it starts to impact your ability to do things you've always done.
Baker: Give me some examples of this.
Dr. Kerwin: It shouldn't start to impact your ability to pay your bills on time, take your medication, make appointments, get to your appointments, interact with friends and family, or it's very noticeable and visible to others, which is oftentimes who first notices memory loss in someone, it's often not the person themself.
I think in those cases, that's when you really want to start, you know, having the discussion with people around you if they've noticed things. And then definitely have the discussion with your doctor.
Baker: Immediately? Should you wait a while, and see if it happens again?
Dr. Kerwin: I think as soon as you recognize that, you know, this seems to be recurring and it seems to be causing difficulty for this person, either it's causing them anxiety, it's causing them to not be able to do the activities that they want to do.
They're having trouble getting to appointments or remembering, you know, events that are coming up, things on the calendar, forgetting to take their medications. I think any time you see those flags, that's when I would go.
The first doctor you see is likely going to be your primary care doctor, and they may or may not be comfortable in what a full, what we call memory evaluation or cognitive evaluation is, but they can start off with the basics of, you know, is your blood pressure in good control? If you have diabetes, is your sugar in control? Because those things can affect memory, too. Are there any medications there that could be affecting your memory? Is there anything in the blood work, like a thyroid level that might be off or a vitamin deficiency?
And if they can't find anything, then they can move on to the more formal assessment, either referring you out to a specialist, or they may be able to start to order some more specific tests that might help to determine if this is an early Alzheimer's process or not.
Baker: I know people are becoming more and more aware about Alzheimer's, early Alzheimer's. But I'm wondering if it's also at the same time maybe causing a bit of a fear or paranoia when it's just clearly a sign of normal aging and you start thinking, "oh my God, this may not be good"?
Dr. Kerwin: No, that's true. And that's, you know, I don't want anyone feeling overly anxious. I think there's always that fine line between being proactive with your health and not letting, you know, symptoms that you're noticing cause you anxiety.
And that's where it might be a good idea to speak with your doctor, you know, so that it does allay that fear. I mean, I do think, although we definitely have the technology and our ability to diagnose Alzheimer's and I think our awareness of it are much greater than it was 10 or 20 years ago, I think people have always been afraid of having something that affects their brain function as they get older.
Before they would have called it dementia. Now we've become much more specific with our terms of a memory impairment or a dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.
And so I think that, although we've gotten further along with our accuracy of diagnosis, I think the fear of losing your independence or your abilities as you get older is always something that I think a lot of people have in the back of their mind that may cause anxiety.
RESOURCES:
15 Warning Signs of Dementia You Shouldn't Ignore
Spotting the Difference: Typical Aging or Alzheimer's?
Is it a dementia disorder, or is it normal aging?
The differences between normal aging and dementia
Alzheimer's Disease/Texas DSHS
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