What is Alzheimer's Disease?
Q: What is Alzheimer's Disease?
A: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a brain disease that slowly destroys brain cells and currently has no cure. It affects different parts of the brain, particularly those controlling memory, language, and thinking skills.
Q: How common is Alzheimer's Disease?
A: Alzheimer's Disease is the most common form of senile dementia accounting for up to 70% of cases. The current lifetime risk for a 65-year-old person to get Alzheimer's disease is estimated to be at 10.5%. In 2007, there were more than 26.6 million people throughout the world who were affected by AD.
Q: Are there treatments available for Alzheimer's Disease?
A: While there is no cure for Alzheimer's, there are treatments that can help some patients with the signs and symptoms so they do not affect them as badly. There are also treatments which slow down the disease so the damage to the brain does not happen as quickly. There are also certain personal habits that people can learn which may help to delay the onset of the disease.
Q: Who discovered Alzheimer’s Disease?
A: The disease was named after Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist who first described it after studying a patient in Frankfurt, Germany in 1906. The disease was named "Alzheimer’s" in 1910 by Dr Emil Kraepilin, a co-worker of Alois'.
Q: What are some risk factors associated with developing AD?
A: Some risk factors associated with developing AD include genetic changes; four different genes have been found which increase one’s risk of getting it. Age is another factor; clinical symptoms usually occur after age 65 but changes in the brain caused by AD may begin years or even decades before then.
Q: Is it normal for older people to develop this type of dementia?
A: No - although symptoms typically begin in older people it is not considered part of normal aging process and should not be assumed as such if noticed in an elderly individual or family member/friend..
