Do you struggle to turn when you walk? It could be a sign of ALZHEIMER’S, scientists say (and here’s six other bizarre symptoms)

Giving money

Giving money to strangers may be an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s.

That’s according to a study from USC and Bar-Ilan University in Israel, which linked financial altruism to early stages of the disease.

The study tested the theory in 67 adults around the age of 70.

Participants were paired up with people they had never met and given $10 (£8) to split between themselves and the other.

The participants were given neurological tests to judge their cognitive state and their potential risk for developing Alzheimer’s.

The results, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, suggested that those at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s were also more willing to give money to someone they had never met.

Dr. Duke Han, a professor of neuropsychology at USC who led the research, said: “Problems handling money are thought to be one of the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, and this finding supports that notion.”

Changes in mood

Starting to watch comedy classics like “Airplane” and “Mr Bean” could be another sign of Alzheimer’s.

Researchers at University College London found that people with the condition were more likely to enjoy watching slapstick, absurdist or satirical comedies than other people of the same age.

A questionnaire was given to friends and relatives of 48 people with Alzheimer’s and FTD.

They were asked about their partner’s preferences for different types of comedy and whether their taste had changed over the past 15 years.

The researchers asked if they were fans of slapstick comedy like Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean, satirical comedy like South Park or absurdist comedy like The Mighty Boosh.

Family and friends were also asked if they had noticed any inappropriate moods in recent years.

According to the study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2015, people with this disease begin to prefer jokes nine years before the typical symptoms of dementia begin to appear.

It also found that people with FTD were more likely to find tragic events funny, or to laugh at things that others wouldn’t find funny like a badly parked car or a barking dog.

These mood swings may be caused by brain shrinkage in the frontal lobe, researchers say.

Bare clothing

Making fashion disasters, trying to put together matching clothes, and wearing things that are not appropriate for the weather can be another sign of Alzheimer’s.

Researchers at the universities of Kent and York described how people suffering from dementia were less likely to be able to dress themselves when left to their own devices.

The study, published in Sociology of Health and Illness in 2018, focused on 32 people in three care homes and 15 regular homes in Kent.

Researchers interviewed 28 care home staff, 29 family carers and relatives to find out how people with dementia should be dressed.

Melissa, a family caregiver who was quoted in the study, said, “I’ve never seen my dad naked. Never. Until that day I showed up at home and he was sitting there in screw-up clothes that really hurt me because I’m not used to it – not at all.’

Carers also said it was difficult to dress people with more advanced dementia because they need encouragement and help to straighten their arms.

Desperation and changing their clothing can be caused by several Alzheimer’s symptoms, from muscle stiffness and erratic arm movements that make getting dressed physically more difficult to simply forgetting the clothes that belong to them.

Bad parking

The memory robbing condition can make the Alzheimer’s patient bad at driving.

The condition affects motor skills, memory and thought processes making their reaction time slow and poor in parking, causing patients to eventually give up their car keys.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis studied the driving habits of 139 people over the course of a year to see how Alzheimer’s changes their behavior.

Half of the participants were diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, while the other half were not.

The study, published in Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy in 2021, suggested that those with the disease were more likely to drive slowly and make sudden changes in direction.

The team used the findings to create a model that predicted whether people had Alzheimer’s based on their driving skills.

The model correctly guessed whether someone had the disease nine out of 10 times.

lashing

Lack of filter and swearing in inappropriate situations can be another warning sign.

The filter that people normally use to stop using inappropriate language in front of children, for example, weakens with the disease, causing those with FTD to rant more.

People with FTD are more likely to use the word ‘f**k’ when asked to name words beginning with ‘f’, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles found.

The study, published in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology in 2010, asked 70 patients to name as many words they could think of beginning with the letters ‘f’, ‘a’ and ‘s’ in one minute.

They also found that six of the 32 dementia patients said the swear word when asked to list words for ‘f’, and more said the word ‘s**t’ for ‘s’.

There is no filter

Like swearing, as the brains of Alzheimer’s patients change, they begin to have no filter.

The way they act and what they say can degenerate in many cases.

Stripping in public, being rude and talking to strangers are all signs of the disease, according to experts.

The prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobes of the brain is the part that controls the filter. But when you develop Alzheimer’s, this part of the brain shrinks.

The Alzheimer’s Association said: “These situations can be very confusing, distressing, upsetting or frustrating for someone with dementia and those close to them.

“The person with dementia may not understand why their behavior is considered inappropriate. It is highly unlikely that they are inappropriate on purpose.’