How Is Alzheimer's Diagnosed
How Is Alzheimer's Diagnosed
It can take years to be definitively diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or related dementia. Getting to that diagnosis is not as easy as you think, because there are many symptoms of other illnesses that can look like Alzheimer's disease but actually aren't. If you see a provider and they tell you and/or your loved one in one 15-minute visit that you have Alzheimer’s disease ~ get a second opinion. This disease takes much more than 15 minutes to be diagnosed accurately. In this week's episode, you'll learn how Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed.
Part One of ‘How Is Alzheimer's Diagnosed’
History of Home Life
The first thing you need to do is make an appointment with your healthcare provider and take your journal of what behaviors you, family, and friends have been seeing.. Previously, we talked about looking for patterns over time so that you can provide a good history to your provider. Your role as family and/ or as a caregiver can help give insights into that person's daily ability to take care of themselves at home that a provider can’t see in a 15-minute visit.
Medical History
Discussing past medical history is crucial. If you're the older adult who's in need of assistance, the doctor will ask what are any illnesses that you've had in the past? Any injuries you've had? Any hospitalizations you've had? Also, knowing your surgical history would be significant. So that they're going to ask you what types of operations you've had.
Brown Bag It
It's also essential for you to take ALL medications, supplements, herbal remedies, over-the-counter medications to the doctor to determine if it's necessary for them to take it. This is called the “brown bag” approach (but it doesn’t matter what color bag you put it all in #lol). Have the provider go over all of them and make sure there a diagnosis to support why they're taking it? Are there any drug interactions that could be causing a problem? Is there a drug to supplement interaction? Those are all the different things that you can find out when you have everything that person could possibly be taking. It could be that they haven't taken their anti-depressant for thirty days.
Labwork and other testing
The next thing that they should do is to run some lab work. We need to know what their hemoglobin is. Do they have anemia? Do they have an infection? Are they diabetic, or are they taking their diabetic medications the way they're supposed to? They could look demented, but really just hypoglycemic. If they have low blood sugar, getting an analysis is super important. Have they been having adequate bowel movements enough? What's their body weight? If somebody has unintentionally lost weight over the past six months, that could be an early symptom that they're not remembering to eat or not remembering how to prepare their meals, or maybe they're having a lot of anxiety.
Part Two of ‘How Is Alzheimer's Diagnosed’
Physical Exam and Screening Tools
So, the next thing would be doing a complete physical exam. And then, you can share some other things that you've been seeing. They're not going to have time to read your whole journal. But you could put some highlights up of the patterns that you've been seeing so they can put that into the bigger picture as we're trying to figure out what's going on with this person. Another thing they should do is two different types of screening tools. But again, these are screening instruments. They're not diagnostic. There will also be many mental state exams, known as MoCA Montreal - Cognitive Assessment.
Brain Imaging
Another part that's going to be important is that you do have some brain scan, known as computerized tomography (CT) scan. What happens with Alzheimer's disease is your brain begins to shrink and turns into a raisin. Alzheimer's disease is brain failure, and we need to think of it as such. And everyone has a different course, which means if it takes a lot of years for someone to have the symptoms, somebody else could be at a different pace. Stay tuned for the next podcast episodes about different strategies that you can use for Alzheimer's and how to handle it as the disease progresses.
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Пікірлер: 37
I like her. Thanks this helps and is inspiring.
@MelissaBPhD
Жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful.
Mom had dementia...it was hell. But I understood what it was going to be like and just tried to help her and cherish the time we had left together before God took her. This is good information.
My husband first experienced confusion and loss of memory in March of 2000 while undergoing rehab for alcoholism. Being home seemed to help him until 2006 when he gradually began experiencing Alzheimer’s symptoms. He had four to five hours a day where he wants to get a "greyhound" to "go home." Also, he thinks I am his sister and believes he has rented a car (he hasn't driven in five to 10 years). His personal hygiene was in the tank - it was necessary for him to change two to three times a day. Without long-term insurance for his care, it was becoming stressful to care from him. this year our family doctor introduced and started him on Healthherbsclinic Alzheimer’s Disease Herbal Tincture, 6 months into treatment he improved dramatically. At the end of the full treatment course, the disease is totally under control. No case of Alzheimer’s, hallucination, forgetfulness, and other he’s strong again and able to go about daily activities.
@jakobausterlitz8102
3 ай бұрын
Sounds made up.
Top notch knowledge Melissa! Thank you for sharing. Excellent 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thank you so much, appreciate your videos
5:55 thank you
I'm glad I found you! Let me ask you one question: May Zoster encephalitis contribute to increase Dementia?
It’s challenging to working with Alzheimer, and dementia days in and days out
Oh wow….some of the questions are difficult for anyone.
Thank you for the valuable info…try not to say um so much, and, you know.
Super informative! Just started researching for a loved one. 05:46 I noticed there's no expounding on actual diagnostic tests, though you distinguish 2 types of tools were for screening and not diagnostic. Why is that? Are screenings insufficient?
@norsangkelsang7939
Жыл бұрын
kzread.info/dash/bejne/rKyT1ruHk9PJgcY.html
What video do you talk about journaling? I want to watch these in order. I need to get this right in diagnosing my Mother. I am the primary caregiver. Thanks 😊
@MelissaBPhD
3 жыл бұрын
You can watch them in any order. You should be able to see them all on the You Tube Channel or you can go to my website -MelissaBPhD.com, Podcast -+ Blog tab and they will come up with a blog. Search the Categories box and you can selected “Alzheimer’s disease” and only those will show up for you (so you don’t have to search through all of the videos). I hope this helps ☺️
I am a 54yr old veteran. I suffer with several endocrine diseases. Also PTSD and severe depression VA did CT. Findings extreme frontal lobe shcrinkage for a 53yr old. Second mri shows white spots on brain with left side temporal hemmorage. Mom died at 82 from Alzheimer's in2016. Second mri one yr apart shows more white matter. No direction as of yet. Testing me for seizers. Don't understand what to expect.
@norsangkelsang7939
Жыл бұрын
kzread.info/dash/bejne/rKyT1ruHk9PJgcY.html
I was told by her special doctor that there was no CT scan for Alheimers.
@b.t7056
3 жыл бұрын
Yes there is no any specific scanning for Alzheimers but change on brain structure can be detected on MRI scan.
@borderlord
3 жыл бұрын
My mother has been having short term memory loss over the last 18 months andhad a CT scan because of a TIA recently and it has shown severe small blood vessel disease and some atrophy and although they have not given a definitive diagnosis the stroke Drs recommended a referral to memory clinic for possible Alzheimers. I'm sure an MRI shows more detail.
I understand that someone who has dementia will not be aware of their symptoms, so if someone complains of memory loss and is fully aware of the loss then the memory loss is probably caused by something else. Is this true?
@MelissaBPhD
3 жыл бұрын
In early dementia, they will be aware of memory problems. However, and changes in memory should be reviewed with your local healthcare provider to rule out any other potential problems that are reversible!
Is drain surgery ever a option for treatment?
This psychiatrist said a test for alzheimer's is very expensive and very time-consuming. That didn't sound right. I know that some mental providers overcharge.. CT? I would have thought a MRI would be necessary. Interesting. Thanks.
@MelissaBPhD
3 жыл бұрын
CT is recommended per clinical practice guidelines to see what’s going on - brain atrophy (shrinkage) or small infarcts (clots; vascular dementia). The rest is screening and is covered under any visit by Medicare and most insurances of your not 65 yet.
Enough talk, let’s get some curies on the horizon. What’s the point of all this? Diagnosing when there’s no cure?
@vidatwynham2482
Жыл бұрын
It helps the family and caregivers provide the best care by understanding and learning so that the patient’s journey through it, is as kind, supportive and safe as possible.
Very informative. Thank you for doing these videos A single negative comment: you are lovely. However, I don't know if it is the makeup or the lighting, but your eyes look natural color. Your face appears as though you are wearing a white skintight mask . This is distracting. With such good info any thing which undermined it on any level should be remedied .
Thanks for this but what we really need you to do now is head out to Washington D.C. and run a test on Brandon, a.k.a. President Biden. Let's get that done pronto so they can get him the heck out of there and into a nursing home for his own good and for the good of the country. Thanks. P.S. Do one on Harris as well so we can get her out as well. If necessary, we'll bring back Obama as VP and see who we can find to fill in for Joe - maybe Michelle Obama? Thanks again.
@dant6311
Жыл бұрын
Wow ...
@keffyalewgebremedhin9502
Жыл бұрын
Dr Melissa I want you to know how much appreciate what you are doing to help new alzhaimer/dimentia patients--such as myself. Keep talking am all ears for your demonstrable expertise! Thanks a million! Keffyalew Gebremedhin, Helsinki, Finland!