Alzheimer’s Life Expectancy
On an average, the patients of Alzheimer’s disease can live for four to eight years after the diagnosis, but each person’s case is different from the other. However, people having Alzheimer’s can live for as long as 20 years and it depends on several factors like the stage they are at, the severity of symptoms, and others. Changes in brain cells occurring due to Alzheimer’s start years before the appearance of any visible symptoms of the patient. The rate of progression and severity is different for every individual. According to the statistics, people can live for almost three to eleven years after Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Also, the life expectancy widely differs for each patient with Alzheimer’s disease. The time of diagnosis and the level of impairment of the brain cells greatly affect life expectancy in a patient. The longer an Alzheimer’s patient can live is for 20 years and it can be as short as three years. However, it is quite common in the case of Alzheimer’s that the disease has been going without a proper diagnosis for several years. The studies report that there is a difference of almost 2.8 years of time between the development of Alzheimer’s and the diagnosis.
It is essential to note that no treatment can promise the cessation in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. It is also not clear yet if the treatment can increase the time to a patient’s life or not. Consequently, Alzheimer’s disease tends to progress and tax the body and brain of the sufferer more. With the progression of Alzheimer’s, the side effects of the medications and symptoms get worse. Fortunately, certain medications might be able to slow down the cognitive decline to an extent most likely for a short time. The treatment options can also help in treating the symptoms and improve the quality of life in numerous patients.
Some of the factors which influence the life expectancy of an Alzheimer’s patients include:
- Brain abnormalities: The studies suggest that certain abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord directly decrease the length of life of an Alzheimer’s patient.
- Gender: A study indicates that the men live for almost 4.2 years while the women live for almost 5.7 years after their initial diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Severity of symptoms: People having significant impairments like history of falling incidences and tendency to get lost face shorter expectancy of life as compared to others with lesser motor impairments.
- The age of your initial diagnosis: The earlier you have a diagnosis, the longer you can live in the case of Alzheimer’s disease and the age of your diagnosis is the most important factor in predicting your life expectancy. The patients who get the diagnosis at the age of 90 years have the life expectancy of 3.4 years while who get the diagnosis at the age of 65 years have the life expectancy of 9.8 years.
- Other health conditions: People having other medical conditions like diabetes, history of heart attacks and other metabolic disorders tend to liver shorter than the others because their complications are affecting the brain health too.