Alzheimer's disease

Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously affects a person's wherewithal to carry out day by day activities. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most adjectives form of dementia among older those. It involves the parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language. Every hours of daylight scientists learn more, but right very soon the causes of AD are still unknown, and nearby is no cure.

Scientists think that up to 4 million Americans suffer from AD. The disease usually begin after age 60, and risk goes up next to age. While younger people also may carry AD, it is much less adjectives. About 3 percent of men and women ages 65 to 74 have AD, and nearly partially of those age 85 and older may hold the disease. It is important to minute, however, that AD is not a normal member of aging.

AD is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German doctor. In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer notice changes within the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental virus. He found abnormal clumps (now call amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (now call neuro-fibrillary tangles). Today, these plaques and tangles in the brain are considered hallmark of AD.

Scientists also have found other brain change in folks with AD. There is a loss of courage cells within areas of the brain that are vital to memory and other mental ability. There also are lower levels of chemicals contained by the brain that carry complex messages wager on and forth between nerve cell. AD may disrupt normal thinking and memory by blocking these messages between impertinence cells.

What Causes AD?

Scientists do not nonetheless fully understand what cause AD. There probably is not one single cause, but several factor that affect each entity differently. Age is the most important certain risk factor for AD. The number of people next to the disease doubles every 5 years beyond age 65.

Family history is another risk factor. Scientists believe that genetics may play a role within many AD cases. For example, familial AD, a exceptional form of AD that usually occurs between the ages of 30 and 60, can be adjectives. However, in the more adjectives form of AD, which occurs subsequent in existence, no obvious family connections pattern is see. One risk factor for this type of AD is a protein called apolipoprotein E (apoE). Everyone have apoE, which helps convey cholesterol in the blood. The apoE gene have three forms. One seems to protect a individual from AD, and another seems to formulate a person more predictable to develop the disease. Other genes that increase the risk of AD or that protect against AD probably remain to be discovered.

Scientists still need to revise a lot more give or take a few what causes AD. In count to genetics and apoE, they are studying teaching, diet, environment, and viruses to cram what role they might play in the nouns of this disease.

What Are the Symptoms of AD?

AD begins slowly. At first, the singular symptom may be mild forgetfulness. People with AD may enjoy trouble remembering recent events, activities, or the name of familiar empire or things. Simple math problems may become hard to solve. Such difficulties may be a bother, but usually they are not serious ample to cause alarm.

However, as the disease go on, symptoms are more easily notice and become serious enough to result in people beside AD or their family member to seek medical give support to. For example, people contained by the later stages of AD may forget how to do simple tasks, close to brushing their teeth or combing their hair. They can no longer judge clearly.

They begin to hold problems speaking, understanding, reading, or writing. Later on, general public with AD may become anxious or aggressive, or travel away from home. Eventually, patients need total attention.

How is AD Diagnosed?

An early, accurate diagnosis of AD help patients and their families plan for the adjectives. It gives them time to discuss guardianship options while the lenient can still take section in making decision. Early diagnosis also offers the best kismet to treat the symptoms of the disease.

Today, the only uncompromising way to diagnose AD is to find out whether in that are plaques and tangles contained by brain tissue. To look at brain tissue, doctors must wait until they do an autopsy, which is an nouns of the body done after a person dies. Therefore, doctors must construct a diagnosis of "possible" or "probable" AD.

At specialized centers, doctors can diagnose AD correctly up to 90 percent of the time. Doctors use several tools to diagnose "probable" AD:

* A complete medical history includes information about the creature's general form, past medical problems, and any difficulties the soul has carrying out on a daily basis activities.

* Medical tests--such as tests of blood, urine, or spinal fluid--help the doctor find other possible diseases cause the symptoms.

* Neuropsychological tests means memory, problem solving, attention, counting, and language.

* Brain scan allow the doctor to look at a picture of the brain to see if anything does not look normal.

Information from the medical history and check results help the doctor rule out other possible cause of the person's symptoms. For example, thyroid problems, drug reaction, depression, brain tumors, and blood vessel disease in the brain can cause AD-like symptoms. Some of these other conditions can be treated successfully.

Recently, scientists hold focused on a type of memory change call mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI is different from both AD and normal age-related memory adapt. People with MCI own ongoing memory problems but do not have other losses similar to confusion, attention problems, and difficulty with oral communication. Scientists funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) are conducting the Memory Impairment Study to learn whether impulsive diagnosis and treatment of MCI might prevent or slow further memory loss, including the development of AD.

How is AD Treated?

AD is a slow disease, starting next to mild memory problems and ending near severe brain damage. The course the disease take and how fast change occur rise and fall from person to party. On average, AD patients live from 8 to 10 years after they are diagnosed, though the disease can last for as plentiful as 20 years.

No treatment can stop AD. However, for some people within the early and middle stages of the disease, the drugs tacrine (Cognex), donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon), or galantamine (Reminyl) may assist prevent some symptoms from becoming worse for a limited time. Also, some medicine may help control behavioral symptoms of AD such as sleeplessness, agitation, wandering, anxiety, and depression. Treating these symptoms recurrently makes patients more comfortable and make their care easier for caregivers.

Developing trial treatments for AD is an active nouns of research. Scientists are testing a quantity of drugs to see if they prevent AD, slow the disease, or help stifle behavioral symptoms.

Scientists are testing two different types of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to find out if they slow the disease. There is evidence that inflammation in the brain may contribute to AD incapacitate. Scientists believe that anti-inflammatory drugs such as NSAIDs might help slow the progression of AD. Rofecoxib (Vioxx) and naproxen (Aleve) are two NSAIDs currently human being studied.

Research has shown that vitamin E slows the progress of some consequences of AD by just about 7 months. Scientists now are studying vitamin E to swot up whether it can prevent or delay AD contained by patients with MCI.

Recent research suggests that ginkgo biloba, an extract made from the leaves of the ginkgo tree, may be of some facilitate in treating AD symptoms. There is no evidence that ginkgo will cure or prevent AD. Scientists immediately are trying to find out whether ginkgo biloba can delay or prevent dementia within older inhabitants.

Research also is under path to see if estrogen reduces the risk of AD or slows the disease. One study showed that estrogen does not slow the progression of already diagnosed disease, but more research is needed to find out if it may play another role.

For example, scientists immediately are trying to find out whether estrogen can prevent AD in women with a kith and kin history of the disease.

People with AD and those near MCI who want to help scientists assessment possible treatments may be able to embezzle part surrounded by clinical trials. Clinical trials are studies to find out whether a new treatment is both risk-free and effective. Healthy population also can help scientists cram more about the brain and AD. The NIA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are working together to keep up the AD Clinical Trials Database, which lists AD clinical trials sponsored by the Federal political affairs and private companies. To find out more about these studies, contact the NIA's Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center at 1-800-438-4380, or stop by the ADEAR Center website at http://www.alzheimers.org. You may want to check regularly to see what new clinical trials own been added to the database.

Many of these studies are person done at NIA-supported Alzheimer's Disease Centers located throughout the United States. These centers carry out a wide-ranging range of research, including studies of the cause, diagnosis, treatment, and management of AD. To grasp a list of these centers, contact the ADEAR Center.

Is There Help for Caregivers?

Most habitually, spouses or other family member provide the day-to-day care for relatives with AD. As the disease get worse, people repeatedly need more and more watchfulness. This can be hard for caregivers and can affect their physical and mental form, family existence, job, and finances.

The Alzheimer's Association have chapters countrywide that provide educational programs and support groups for caregivers and inherited members of nation with AD. For more information, contact the Alzheimer's Association timetabled at the end of this reality sheet.

Research

Scientists have come a long mode in their kind of AD. Findings from years of research have begin to clarify differences between normal age-related memory change, MCI, and AD. Scientists also have made great progress contained by defining the changes that pocket place in the AD brain, which allows them to pinpoint possible target for treatment. These advances are the foundation for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Alzheimer's Disease Prevention Initiative, which is designed to:

* figure out why AD occurs and who is at greatest risk of developing it

* boost the accuracy of diagnosis and the resources to identify those at risk

* discover, develop, and test exotic treatments

* discover treatments for behavioral problems in patients next to AD