Once a person starts to show the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, they have already been slowly developing the disease for now over 20 years. It just takes a long time for the symptoms to start to show. With the average onset being around the age of 65, the longer you live, the greater the chance you have of acquiring the disease. It only goes to show, it isn’t selective who it strikes. With the baby boomers on the horizon, we could end up have an “Tsunami affect” of a Alzheimer’s health crises. When there is an early onset, it most likely has a hereditary factor involved. This case of a young mother, age 31 being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease is one of the saddest stories I have heard.

According to an Australian newspaper this article was written:

An Australian mother, Rebecca Doig, was unable to recognize her baby daughter days after giving birth because she is suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. The 31 year-old discovered that she was pregnant while having scans to investigate her memory loss. She was diagnosed with a rare form of the degenerative disease in August.

On Tuesday, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Emily Rebecca, at a Sydney hospital. But Mrs Doig, who is believed to be one of the youngest people to have suffered from Alzheimer’s, cannot remember anything about the birth — or the fact that she now has a daughter.

Her husband, Scott, described his wife’s illness as a “great tragedy”. “She’s like an 80-year-old going on five years old,” he said. “She went from being an independent, outgoing and bright young woman to someone who doesn’t recognize her own newborn daughter.” He described his new baby as
“perfect”, but added: “The road ahead is going to be extremely difficult.”

He said about their daughter: “She's a very beautiful little thing and very healthy. “We take every day as it comes because there's not a lot we can do about it. I have a wife and now a little girl to look after.”

Mrs Doig has been refused a disability pension and the family is struggling financially, the Sydney Sunday Telegraph reported. Doctors say she the first woman to have this particular strain of the disease and the first to give birth at such an advanced stage.

They say Emily does not carry a defective PSEN1 gene, which is believed to have caused the condition in her mother. (End of Article)

No matter what the situation may be, when a person begins to show signs of dementia, don’t hesitate to see your family physician. Although there can be many situations that can bring on episodic dementia, it may be able to be corrected if the reason for it is reversible. Once the reversible dementia is ruled out, then the pathological reasons for dementia are then entertained.

If the reason for dementia is considered irreversible, there are medications that can slow the progression of the disease therefore the person needs to be started on that as soon as possible. Unfortunately, no one is exempt of acquiring the disease. There are although health factors that are seen more often with a person that has Alzheimer’s disease. One cannot be too careful.