The Alzheimer’s Association held a community listening session Friday morning at the Columbus Public Library on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and memory loss. 

Alzheimer’s disease is a gradual loss of brain cells that most notably affects the area of the brain where memory is stored. 

This disease is estimated to affect about 10% of the population above the age of 65, and more than 30% of the population above the age of 85, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

The association also says Alzheimer’s patients often have symptoms for three to five years before being formally diagnosed. 

Program Manager of the Alzheimer’s Association Megan Wilson shared with us some of the early signs of Alzheimer’s. 

“So the first stages of Alzheimer’s, there’s actually biological changes in the brain before you have any symptoms outwardly that are indicative that you have Alzheimer’s or dementia. But once you start having those outward symptoms, it’s memory loss that disrupts daily life. You can also have some challenges in planning or solving problems, difficulty completing familiar tasks like driving to familiar places, confusion with time or place, and not being able to know what day of the week it is or what month it is. You can misplace things and lose the ability to retrace steps,” said Megan.

This community session comes just three days after the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers announced the former First Lady was diagnosed with dementia.

The Alzheimer’s Association will host a walk to end Alzheimer’s in Columbus on October 6th. More information on the walk will be available on our website at WRBL-dot com.

Found the link to the walk be sure to visit the Alzheimer’s Association’s website.