What stood out for Steamboat Springs resident Kelli Root was when her mom, a retired homemaker and teacher, could not complete a well-used recipe without help.

“You can look back and see the signs, but when you are not expecting it, the signs don’t jump out at you,” Root said. “I think it was hard to recognize because they get really good at hiding it.”

After progression of suspected dementia-related symptoms and a flurry of worried emails from her dad, Root’s parents moved back to Steamboat so that Root, her sister and brother-in-law could help. Mom, Bev Root, was diagnosed with dementia at 83 by her primary care physician and specifically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease by a neurologist.

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Root said the family is noticing declines and changes in her mom, now 86, every six months.

“It’s hard to realize how progressive it is, trying to explain to my dad that she is not going to get any better,” said Root of her 87-year-old dad.

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Root encourages other families and caregivers to seek out assistance from services that can be helpful in the hard struggle caring for someone with the Alzheimer’s, which makes up 60-80% of dementia cases.

She recommends utilizing caregiver support groups, free weekly evening meals at local churches, Meals on Wheels food deliveries, Routt County Council on Aging services and visiting nurses from services such as Blue Skies Nursing. Nonprofit Northwest Colorado Health also offers a mix of at-home health services.

“It’s a really difficult disease for family and especially for my dad, who is an elderly caregiver,” Root said. “It’s just a really hard disease to be a caregiver.”

During a Recognizing Dementia program on Feb. 13 at Library Hall in Steamboat, Alzheimer’s Association Colorado Chapter community educator Leigh Hull explained the differences in typical age-related memory lapses, thinking or behavior changes compared to dementia-related changes.

One example is that older adults may temporarily forget something but can trace back to remember the answer later, but seniors with dementia lose those thoughts completely and cannot recall them later.

Hull said if family members notice older loved ones not being able to do simple things they used to do daily and easily, then that’s a cause for dementia concern.

According to Mayo Clinic, Alzheimer’s disease is the biological process that begins with the appearance of a buildup of proteins as amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. This causes brain cells to die over time and the brain to shrink.

The 10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s dementia start with memory loss that disrupts daily life. Other warning signs include challenges in planning or solving problems, difficulty in completing familiar tasks, confusion with time or place and trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships.

Other warning signs include new problems with words in speaking or writing, misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps, decreased or poor judgment, withdrawal from work or social activities and changes in mood and personality.

A typical age-related change would be sometimes forgetting names or appointments but remembering them later. With dementia, one of the most common signs is forgetting recently learned information, forgetting important dates or events, repeatedly asking the same questions and increasingly relying on memory aids or family members for tasks formerly managed with ease.

Another typical change could be making occasional errors when managing finances or household bills. In comparison, a possible sign of dementia could be trouble keeping track of monthly bills or difficulty concentrating, difficulty following a familiar recipe and taking much longer to complete tasks.

A normal change could be sometimes having trouble finding the right word compared to dementia-related struggling with vocabulary, using the wrong word for a familiar object or stopping in the middle of a conversation and having no idea how to continue.

Dementia also can manifest in physical symptoms such as difficulty with balance, trouble reading or problems judging distance and determining color or contrast, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

In addition to Alzheimer’s, other forms of dementia include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia.

The Alzheimer’s Association reports at least 90,800 people age 65 and older in Colorado have Alzheimer’s, which represents 10.4% of the senior population. Alzheimer’s led to 1,778 deaths in Colorado in 2021, the seventh-leading cause of death. Across the U.S. nearly 7 million Americans are living with the disease.

Angel Hoffman, Alzheimer’s Association director of community engagement in northern Colorado, said Alzheimer’s continues to increase in the state.

“Age is the greatest risk factor, and we are an aging population,” Hoffman said. “With greater education, awareness, less stigma and potential treatments, people are more inclined to seek a diagnosis if they have concerns about their brain health. And physicians have more tools available when diagnosing.”

Families can ask for a loved one to have a cognitive assessment, mental state examination or memory impairment screening. Testing can take place initially through a primary care physician and more detailed testing with a neurologist. People can take a SAGE at-home free test, also known as Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination, to bring to a dementia specialist for review.

Experts say a top way to fight dementia and cognitive decline is the same way to improve cardiovascular health — through exercise and a healthy, anti-inflammatory or Mediterranean-style diet.