According to NHS, Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia in the UK. The exact cause of it is not fully understood, although medical professionals list potential factors that can lead to it, such as increasing age, untreated depression, a family history of the condition, and lifestyle factors and conditions related to cardiovascular diseases, among the rest.
Alzheimer’s is a “brain condition that slowly damages your memory, thinking, learning and organizing skills. It’s the most common cause of dementia. Symptoms usually first appear in people older than 65,” the Cleveland Clinic notes.
“People with memory loss or other Alzheimer’s symptoms may have difficulty recognizing changes in their own mind and body. These signs may be more obvious to loved ones,” the clinic’s website explains.
While this disease affects everyone differently, common symptoms are weakened or complete elimination of memory, reasoning, language, personality and behavior, and spatial understanding.
Staci Marklin, a mother-of-one from Knoxville, Tennessee, shares her journey with early-onset Alzheimer’s and the first symptoms she experienced.
Namely, Marklin first noticed switching words around at the age of 47 but brushed it off believing it was due to being just a busy mom to a toddler. Speaking to Uniland, she recalled saying things like, “move the carpet,” instead of “move the curtain.”
“There would be times when things would just disappear from my brain. Someone once asked me about a co-worker, and I had absolutely no idea who they were talking about. I could tell it was someone I should know by the way they were talking. It was a few days later when I realized it was a co-worker that I had worked really closely with.”
Marklin decided to consult with a doctor due to the fact that her grandmother also suffered from the disease. She was then told that although it’s rare for someone her age to have Alzheimer’s, it’s not impossible.
In 2024, she was diagnosed with the disease after an amyloid PET scan revealed amyloid plaques in her brain.
Marklin and her family were well-aware that the diagnosis would change their lives, but Marklin accepted it and she’s very open about it, sharing her journey with her TikTok followers.
“People generally see this as an older person’s disease and view people with Alzheimer’s as if they can’t do anything for themselves,” she said. “It was difficult for me to get people to believe me and to trust the results I had gotten.”
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