PROCTORVILLE — Alzheimer’s Disease is a growing health concern in the United States, and, on Thursday, an event took place to educate people on the disease.

The Lawrence County Homemakers and the Alzheimer’s Association sponsored an Alzheimer’s Basics forum at Ohio University Southern’s Proctorville Center.

The featured speaker was Melissa Dever, a licensed social worker who serves with the southeastern Ohio branch of the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Cincinnati, which covers eight counties, including Lawrence.

“I have dealt with Alzheimer’s both personally and professionally,” she said, detailing how her organization offers support groups, family care counseling, 24-hour help, community education and education for providers on the issue.

Dever said many people come to her, asking why Alzheimer’s is more widespread today than in the past.

“In some ways, I think that it is,” she said. “But, back then, people were called senile, or you had ‘Crazy Aunt Sally’ that people didn’t talk about. I think it was there, but people just didn’t recognize it.”

She also said the increased numbers for the disease were due to longer life spans in the modern era.

“The greatest risk for Alzheimer’s is age, and people are living longer now,” she said.

Dever said that Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia, an umbrella term that includes many conditions that affect cognitive functions.

Alzheimer’s, a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually strikes the elderly, is caused by an abnormal build-up of proteins in the brain, which form neurofibrillary tangles and leads to nerve cell death and the deterioration of the brain.

“We know the build-up causes the nerve cell death, but we don’t know what causes the build-up,” Dever said.

She said that people have an 8-13-year expectancy of life after being diagnosed, but, in some cases, people may live as long as 20 years.

“If you’re healthier than others when you’re diagnosed, you may end up living longer,” she said.

She said the disease attacks the brain years before a person may notice the first signs or symptoms.

Other forms of dementia she discussed included vascular dementia, which can progress to Alzheimer’s, which impairs a person ability to make plans or problem solve and affects mood.

Frontotemporal dementia, also related to Alzheimer’s, can affect younger people, as early as their 50s, and can cause changes in personality. It is often mistaken for mental illness, Dever said.

The life expectancy for Frontotemporal dementia is about seven years,” she said.

“It is more rapid in progress,” Dever said.

She said people are seeing more of early onset Alzheimer’s, striking before the age of 65, and also discussed Lewy Body Dementia, which she described as a sort of combination of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease,” which causes delusions, hallucinations and tremors and has a life expectancy of seven years.

Parkinson’s can also cause delusions and hallucinations, though Dever said patients with it may appear functional to others and are still able to perform many tasks, despite the detachment from reality.

She described one woman who suffered from it, who hallucinated and saw bees. When her daughter visited, she said the woman brought a tissue in the room and told her that she had caught some of the bees that no one believed her about.

“But when I open it, they’re not going to be there, are they?” she said the woman said of the tissue, in a way realizing and understanding what was happening.

Dever said people with this form of dementia might still be able to do things like fixing their hair, doing make-up or even driving, despite the delusions.

Dever said Alzheimer’s and these dementias are irreversible, and can only be treated with medicine, but she said some forms of dementia are reversible.

Conditions such as depression, improper medication, anxiety, dehydration and vitamin B12 deficiencies can cause forms of dementia, which, if treated, can be reversed and cognitive functions restored.

Dever said people should visit or be taken to a specialist to be properly diagnosed, stating she has seen many cases of reversible dementia that were wrongly diagnosed as Alzheimer’s at first.

“There can be other reason cognition is affected,” Dever said. “Don’t let someone wrongly rubber stamp you with Alzheimer’s.”

For more information on the Alzheimer’s Association serving the Lawrence County area, visit www.alz.org/cincinnati or call 513-721-4284.