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Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurologic disorder that causes brain cells to die and the brain to shrink (atrophy). Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, which is characterised by a progressive decline in cognitive, behavioural, and social skills that impairs a person's ability to function independently. Eighty percent are 75 years old or older. Early symptoms of the disease include forgetting recent events or conversations. As the disease progresses, a person with Alzheimer's disease will develop severe memory impairment and lose the ability to perform daily tasks. Medications may temporarily improve or slow the progression of symptoms. These treatments can help people with Alzheimer's disease maintain function and independence for a short time.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by memory loss. Early warning signs include trouble recalling recent events or conversations. Memory impairments worsen as the disease progresses, and other symptoms emerge. A person with Alzheimer's disease may initially be aware of difficulties remembering things and organizing thoughts. A family member or a close friend may be more likely to notice when the symptoms worsen. It is necessary to think and reason. Alzheimer's disease impairs concentration and thinking, particularly when it comes to abstract concepts like numbers. Multitasking is especially difficult, and managing finances, balancing checkbooks and paying bills on time may be difficult. A person suffering from Alzheimer's disease may eventually be unable to recognize and deal with numbers.
Making decisions and judgements, Alzheimer's disease impairs the ability to make reasonable decisions and judgements in everyday situations. For example, a person may make poor or unusual choices in social interactions or dress inappropriately for the weather. Responding effectively to everyday problems, such as food burning on the stove or unexpected driving situations, may be more difficult.
Routine activities that require sequential steps, such as planning and cooking a meal or playing a favorite game, become difficult to perform as the disease progresses. People with advanced Alzheimer's disease frequently forget basic tasks like dressing and bathing.
Many important skills are preserved for longer periods of time even as symptoms worsen. Reading or listening to books, telling stories and reminiscing, singing, listening to music, dancing, drawing, or doing crafts are all examples of preserved skills. These attributes may be preserved for a prolonged period of time because they are controlled by parts of the brain that are affected later in the disease's steady progress.
Alzheimer's disease advances at a variable rate. People with Alzheimer's disease live between three and eleven years after diagnosis on average, but some live for 20 years or more. The degree of impairment at the time of diagnosis can have an impact on life expectancy. Undiagnosed vascular risk factors, such as hypertension, are interconnected to a faster rate of Alzheimer's disease progression. Because impaired swallowing allows food or beverages to enter the lungs, where an infection can begin, pneumonia is a common cause of death. Dehydration, malnutrition, falls, and other infections are indeed common causes of death.
Alzheimer's disease is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells. One of the proteins involved is called amyloid, deposits of which form plaques around brain cells. The other protein is called tau, deposits of which form tangles within brain cells.
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