by Rachel Blain

Created on: October 21, 2009   Last Updated: March 21, 2012

In Stage 1 - There are no noticeable symptoms besides what seems to be normal everyday forgetfulness here and there.

Stage 2 -The person may feel as if they have memory loss, they tend to forget familiar words or names. These problems are not evident during regular medical examinations and are not yet apparent to family and friends.

Stage 3- In this stage family members and friends may begin to notice decreased performance in planning and organizing, reading comprehension, remembering names of familiar people, important dates, socialization and an increased frequency in misplacing ever day items.

Stage 4- In This stage it becomes apparent to a physician - through careful screening that there is Decreased knowledge of events that have happened within the past few minutes or hours and/ or current events. The ability to perform challenging mental math is significantly impaired. Significant decrease in the ability to manage finances, plan events, organize, memories of past events become muddled.

Stage 5- At this stage help with every day activities is a necessity. The person affected with Alzheimer's may forget their address, phone number, date of birth, what high school they graduated from. They will forget How to dress appropriately for the season. For example, they may dress in shorts and a tank top in the middle of winter. They will usually remember their name and the names of their spouses and children, but begin to forget names of less significant family members and friends. At this stage gaps in cognitive function occur rather frequently.

Stage 6-At this stage they can no longer function to properly dress themselves and will need assistance. For example they may put a pair of underwear on top of their pants, rather than putting them on first. Incontinence is frequent at this stage; they will need help with all aspects of toileting. They may mix words, for example, say bed when they mean window, the normal sleep cycle tends to go in reverse, and they will tend to nap on and off all day and wander at night. Significant memory loss can be noted at this stage and they may become paranoid or delusional and, on occasion, forget the names of their caregiver, spouse, and those significantly close to them. Significant personality changes can be noted in this stage, they may become aggressive and/or confrontational

Stage 7- This, the final and most devastating stage as the brain shuts the body down, with it comes the loss of ability to respond to the environment, to recognize speech, they may muddle a few words, but for the most part cannot speak, the ability to walk, is lost, to feed themselves, smile, hold their head up, lost, swallowing becomes impaired and they lose their ability to control their own reflexes. Muscles become ridged and stiff and the brain,at the end of this stage loses its ability to tell the heart to pump. (Source) Alzheimer's association

What can we, as a society do? The best thing we can do for our loved ones and for ourselves is to learn, research, ask questions, and understand this disease - the better of an understanding we have of it the better able we will be to care for our loved ones in the most positive ways possible. The Alzheimer's Foundation Of America http://www.alzfdn.org/index.htm is a great place to start . Seek out friends, support groups, and groups for your loved one as well as yourself.

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