Signs that may indicate Alzheimer's

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer

It's important to identify people in the very early stages of Alzheimer's disease so treatment can begin before the brain starts to degenerate. Ten signs that could indicate the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia in older age:

• Memory loss

• Difficulty performing familiar tasks such as remembering how to cook or balance a checkbook

• Problems with language such as not being able to find the right words

• Time and place disorientation, such as suddenly not knowing how to get home

• Poor or reduced judgment, for example, dressing inappropriately for the weather

• Problems with abstract thinking, such as performing simple arithmetic calculations

• Misplacing things, such as putting an iron in the freezer and then not remembering how it got there

• Changes in mood or behavior, such as very rapid mood swings for no apparent reason, or becoming suddenly suspicious, fearful or angry

• Loss of initiative: showing no desire to do anything

• Loss of interest in hobbies, social or business activities