Alzheimer's Disease: A Guide to Better Understanding and Better Living

Stages to Look For

Stage 1

In the first stage, all symptoms are practically inexistent. There's no trace of memory loss or physical impairment. Ten years ago, my grandmother was as healthy as a horse. She had very mild lapses in memory, which we all know, could've easily been the cause of stress. But my grandma could remember each and every one of our birthdays, and she could even remember to grab a camera to document the occasion beforehand. Nothing she did was symptomatic. In the first stage, your loved ones appear no different in their day to day lives. Then comes the second stage.

Stage 2

The second stage is a mild cognitive decline. They may experience memory lapses, including things like the location of keys or the names of certain people. This could easily be misread as old age. My family and I had grown accustomed to my grandmother's "spacey" memory. We thought nothing of it. My grandma would list whole series of names, from the name of her dog to the names of all her children before landing on the right one. It was kind of amusing actually. But she could have easily been in Stage 2 and we would never know it.

Stage 3