Alzheimer’s disease can happen to anyone! What do you need to know about Alzheimer’s disease?
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#HealthFactFriday #DeafHealth

[VIDEO DESC & TRANSCRIPT: Dwight is standing in front of a dark background. Clip begins with a freeze frame in black and while. A yellow box in the top right corner appears with black text “HEALTH FACT”. White text appears in near left center, “what is ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE” as a white line underlines it.

DWIGHT: More than 5.5 million Americans, mostly 65 years or older, may have dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. What is Alzheimer’s disease? It is a process where memory and thinking skills gradually decline to a stage where the individual is unable to do the simplest tasks. The simple tasks could be from brushing your teeth to being unable to remember where you are after going on a walk or being unable to recognize their family members. Alzheimer’s disease is fatal due to abnormal changes in the brain activity which kills brain cells. The cause of this disease is unknown. The cause could be related to genetics, environmental factors, or other behavioral factors like lifestyle. The most common symptom is memory loss, which ranges from mild to severe. With mild memory problems, you may have a harder time remembering where your car keys were. You may end wandering to a location and couldn’t remember why you were there in the first place -- this is the stage when people are typically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias. With severe memory problems, the brain would greatly shrink. By this time, you will need to depend on others for care.

Clip fades out to a white background with black text in center, “This project was made possible with funding from the National Institutes of Health/NDICD (#5R01DC01446395 and supplements awarded to Poorna Kushalnagar, Ph.D.).” Next clip, white background with three logos -- Deaf Seniors of America’s logo and the NAD’s logo are in a row, centered, underneath both logos is the Deaf Health Communication and Quality of Life Center’s logo.]