Alzheimer's Disease - What Is It?
By James Hunaban

Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia which affects middle-aged and older people. It is a progressive disease that slowly kills the victims nerve cells in the brain. Alzheimer's is a rather complex disease that seems to be caused by several influences.

It is the most common type of dementia, accounting for roughly seventy percent of diagnosed cases, and it knows no boundries, being spread across different cultures and affecting both males and females in equal measure.

Alzheimer's disease can be extremely stressful for the victims family, who very often find themselves being in the front line when it comes to providing care and support. It ought to be remembered that the family member or members doing the caring will also need plenty of support.

The care of a Alzheimer's patient is quite a challenge because the decline is slow and unpredictable and can progress at a different pace. If it happens that Alzheimer's is diagnosed, seek out any local services and aid groups that are available from your doctor's surgery or inquire at your local hospital.

There is not a single special test for Alzheimer's, but invariably the correct diagnosis is achieved by ruling out other causes of memory loss, for example: Parkinson's disease, minor strokes, or depression.

This disease normally rears it's ugly head after the age of 60 or so, and the risk gets higher with age progression. All the same, it must be remembered that Alzheimer's disease is not neccersarily a normal part of the aging process.

Alzheimer's can be described as the death of the mind before the Body, and as such is a very difficult and depressing condition for any family to have to deal with. Alzheimer's is reckoned to be a fatal disease, but the usual cause of death is normally another illness (like pneumonia) which can develop as a complication in an individual already severely weakened by Alzheimer's.

The treatment of Alzheimer's Disease is still relatively young, but researchers are very confident that the time is not too far away when medications will become available that will be able to successfully treat the symptoms of Azheimers.