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My dad is only 78, and has had dementia/Alzheimer's for about 5 years. He is in good health.

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If he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's I would not consider him to be in good health. You mean his heart and lungs are fine.

Its hard to say but patients like this could live well into their 90's. Ronald Reagan was diagnosed in 1984 and lived another 10 years.
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you may not be able to get him to take his health seriously, but perhaps a talk with his doctor would help. My mom always took what the doctor said WAY more seriously than me!
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Each patient with dementia has their own time table. If his physical health is good, that is great! As he progresses, he will probably have issues with balance which will curtail his activities without assistance, but encourage him to remain active physically. Eat lots of good fats as they nourish the brain and take a good Omega 3 vitamin as recommended by Dr. Oz. My husband has been degrading for seven years, but he's still alive with our 29th anniversary today (May 24th) and his upcoming 88th birthday in Oct. So love your father for the time he has left, and leave it in God's hands. Best wishes!
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Someone who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 5 years ago can live another 10 years maybe. It depends upon what other illnesses the person has, how acute they are. But someone with JUST Alzheimer's can go on like that for years and years. It's truly an evil disease.
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And this is the conundrum - brain is basically 'dead' socially, but the body is healthier than ours.

My mother-in-law had familial alzheimers (seriously ran in the family) at the age of 50. She died at the age of 68.

My mother is 91 and I believe has had 'dementia' for at least two years, although nobody 'noticed' until she was hospitalized and given the tests. I can see the plateaus, i.e., different drops in levels of understanding, but her physical health is good. What happened to my mother in law was the brain stopped giving her the ability to swallow, which, I would imagine was nature's way of telling her to stop eating, thus allowing death. Of course, the hospital had to 'see' why she wasn't 'swallowing' so they gave her a (and this is kind of funny) a 'swallowing' test that involved 'swallowing'. I mean, really? This was all very long ago, so one would imagine some analysis have improved, but then again, it's Alzheimers and it hasn't really affected the generation that will make up the fastest growing age group.

I'm going to add that perhaps the reason we didn't see all that much of it before the 1980s is because people died earlier. Just my observation. Plus people had another name for it, i.e., 'hardening of the arteries' (which, involved stroke and was a convenient phrase for getting older).
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My husband only lasted about 6 years but he had COPD also
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My dad died if alztheimers and it isn't a pretty disease. They live fine he never wandered but it eventually took his mind and he couldn't swallow.this couldn't eat it was very sad. Been only 3 yrs. My mom has strokes plus Parkinson's and again I have to watch her suffer..... it's taking her swallowing as well. Just sometimes can't handle things..... sorry. I tried to help answer but didn't do a good job. Whatever we get it is hard till the end.. just didn't seem fair.....
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Sorry for the typos answering on my phone. Dang predictions...... but all diseases are horrible and I'm glad for this site and the support u all have given me...
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Well my Dad had dementia, for at least 8 years with fairly normal functioning, until he started being unable to pay bills. That's when I got involved....and from that point his decline was much faster....moving into an inability to remember things for more than a few hours, staying up all night and napping all day, eating weird things at weird times....like a half gallon of ice cream in the middle of the night...losing things, misplacing things, forgetting to take his meds, no longer being able to fill his own pill box each week....all declines in less than a year, and then he needed to be placed. He's been place for about 18 months and is 92...lost a little more weight, but still able to eat and ambulate on his own. NOT able to be continent anymore and his memory is much shorter term. If I visit him in the morning, he doesn't remember I was there at a visit a few hours later, and cannot relay if he had breakfast or lunch, or even tell us what he did an hour before. So we are 10 years into the dementia diagnosis, with him being 92. But he has no real chronic physical health problems either.
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Since it sounds like he is still competent, he can still choose how he wants to end up. He may want to look into the Final Exit Network (google it) to get their literature. Many people choose not to go the whole trip, becoming completely dependent on others. Others choose to do it.
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my dad pretty healthy physically a very low dose of a statin and bp meds. but in the past 10 weeks since he moved in he does seem a bit frailer walking a bit hunched over. Even though he has a superb appetite he has not a few (2-3) pounds considering he is eating more here than when mom was alive. Almost 84 1/2. His short term memory almost non existent. hard to say how long he will continue to live and decline.
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That's great hes eating. My mom loves to eat to and she loves her lol.!!
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Desserts sorry!
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i see I made a typo as well. dad has lost a few pounds in the past month I will try to weigh him weekly.
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