Expert: Paula Damgaard - 6/14/2007

Question
How does Alzheimer's affect a person in their daily life?

Does the disease/condition affect their lifespan?

Answer
Hi Timothy, boy you don't ask easy questions!  Alzheimer's affects a person in every aspect of their life.  Not all at once, some days are worse than others.  Basically while the disease does affect ones memory, as the disease marches through the brain, it also affects their ability to do their activities of daily living: dressing, bathing, feeding, toileting, etc.  By the end of the disease, they are reduced to an infantile state.

Does the disease affect their lifespan: hard to say.  how would we know how long they would live had they not gotten the disease?  Most of the people who develop the disease are in their 70's and higher, so their life expectancy is not as long as a younger person, who generally don't get the disease.  Having said that, I will say that the people who have an early onset familial type of Alzheimer's disease do die younger.  

The disease destroys the brain, which includes the immune system.  Once that goes then people are not able to fight illnesses that come at them and that is how they die.

Hope this answers your questions.  Paula