Good Grapevine
My grapes are bursting with info and flavour for you to devour!

Sue woke up in horror to find a stranger sleeping next to her and shouted, “Who are you?!” Sue is a 77 year old grandmother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and the man next to her is her husband of 57 years, one who has loved her all his life and slept beside her ever since they were married.

Alzheimer’s disease, also known as senile dementia, is named after Alois Alzheimer (164-1915). People afflicted with this disease more often than not gradually lose their memory over the years, and it is the worst form of memory loss anyone can be inflicted with. People who are affected by it can recall events decades ago but cannot remember what they just ate for lunch!

Well-known figures who are known to be suffering from Alzheimer’s include late US president Ronald Reagan. When the disease approaches its later stages, patients even become oblivious to whom their relatives of family are. This can cause them to drop into depression and requires a significant change on their family’s part to accommodate the sudden change in behavior and personality of the patient. Unfortunately, it has also been discovered that Alzheimer’s disease is hereditary also.

Presently, there has yet to be a cure to be found for Alzheimer’s however medical facilities around the world are all trying to formulate out the most effective medication to deal with this disease. However, with our present technology, they can only ensure that the medication is effective when used in the early stages of the disease.

It seems as though as we age, memory loss is inevitable and would sooner or later be part of our lives as it is normal for people to become forgetful as the grow older, however only a few are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Also, even though normal memory improving techniques like mind stimulating games have no known effect to Alzheimer’s, it is a somewhat effective tool as a preventive measure. Furthermore, the earlier you start such memory training, the higher your chances of maintaining your mental fitness. Even so, our brain cells are irreplaceable after they perish and with almost everyone born with the same number of brain cells, as we age, more of these cells die off as part of the growing process, thus our mental ability get weaker as we grow older.

Memory loss and aging are very much linked together with each other as memory loss will catch up with us once we reach a certain age.