Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s is a degenerate (dementia) disease which causes many types of complications, such as, memory loss, focusing for long periods of time and performing simple tasks may and do become difficult to do. According to emedicine.com, about 4 million people within the United States, have Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, many of the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s appears to be signs of aging, causing many cases to go either undiagnosed or untreated.

Alzheimer’s is not selective when it comes to race; anyone is susceptible to developing the illness. However, age is a factor. Normally, individuals between the ages of 65 and 85 are diagnosed with the illness. 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s and as many as 5 in 10 people over the age of 85 have the disease.

According to, emedicine.com, “there are a number of diseases which causes the symptoms of dementia as a result of the changes they have on the brain and the ultimate loss of nerve cells (neurons). The most common causes include: Alzheimer’s disease,m vascular (multi-infarct) dementia, Dementia with Lewy bodies, Fronto-temporal dementia (e.g. Pick’s disease), Alcohol-related dementia (including Korsakoff’s syndrome) and AIDS-related dementia.”

Presently, it is not known why people develop Alzheimer’s disease. However, they’re few factors to take into view; age, genes, education, alcohol consumption, and a head injury, may make one more susceptible to developing the illness.

Currently, there is no cure for this disease. Studies are being done to better understand why the disease affects the brain. A drug known as Aricept, for the mild to moderate Alzheimer’s patients, is treating Alzheimer’s. Aricept, taken early on decreases memory loss and enables the person to continue functioning in his or her everyday manner.