As people get older it is natural to expect that some of their abilities will change. However, each individual’s abilities and health are different. Instead of simply accepting that matters must decline rapidly with age, medical researchers encourage people to try and cultivate and maintain a positive outlook. With thoughtful effort the quality of one’s life even in older age can be enjoyable.

Nonetheless, if it becomes apparent that there is a change that is beginning to affect the quality of life how can an individual know if it is something that is just a normal tendency of aging or a sign of a serious illness such as Alzheimer’s?

Some of the defining aspects are as follows:

* Memory loss that goes beyond the forgetfulness of someone’s name that they may not see regularly or the recalling of some minor event, or missing an appointment. People who are battling Alzheimer’s will have trouble retaining recently learned information. They may forget major events, and seem to block out people that should be familiar to their environment.

* Having a growing difficulty with language or numbers. It will go beyond the occasional search for a certain word and develop into the loss of common words such as “chair” for example. Or the need to replace one word for another such as “food” instead of “drink”. The ability to communicate with others will greatly diminish.

* People suffering from Alzheimer’s will begin to have difficulty handling very simple routines such as getting dressed or preparing a meal.

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