Which Is Worse, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s?

Dementia can be caused by either Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. If a person has dementia, it is difficult to tell which of the two conditions is to blame. Regardless of what cause the dementia, most families of Parkinson’s disease patients say that it was better that their loved ones did not have Alzheimer’s. For them, Alzheimer’s is worse than Parkinson’s.

Keep Your Mind or Body?

If you are wondering which is worse between Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, one must decide whether you prefer to lose control of your mind or your body. Parkinson’s disease is marked by the loss of control of the body.

Alzheimer’s affects the brain and progressively gets worse. You can read about the 7 stages of Alzheimer’s here.

Parkinson’s patients will have symptoms like muscle rigidity, body tremors, slowed movements and shuffled walking. It’s mostly the body that is affected. Parkinson’s patients only have mild cognitive disabilities. On the other hand, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s are like memory loss, struggling to recall words and forgetting to do otherwise simple tasks like driving.

A Parkinson’s patient may have their memory intact but have a problem walking straight or moving their body. An Alzheimer’s patient loses both their cognitive function and ability to do anything for their own. When you look at it from this perspective, then Alzheimer’s is usually considered worse off than Parkinson’s.

But really, there should be no ‘awful’ competition between the two conditions because both are known to be incurable and eventually lead to death. They also present some similarities in symptoms and they are both degenerative conditions.