As the fourth leading cause of death after heart disease, cancer and stroke, Alzheimer’s disease accounts for up to 70% of dementia cases.
The condition is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterised initially by memory decline and later by impaired cognition, loss of concentration and language deterioration.
Alzheimer's can develop at any time but generally occurs after sixty, affecting 1% of the population at this age. The figure then doubles roughly every five years, reaching 32% by the age of eighty-five.
| Estimations are that two thirds of people in their nineties suffer from some form of dementia. |
The distinction between the disease and dementia itself is often clinically not clear. It is just one cause of the end result, which is dementia.
Dementia is the result of degeneration of cells in the brain, the region of which determines the symptoms. The location of the degeneration is, in turn, determined by its cause.
Vascular dementia refers to all forms of the condition caused by damage to blood vessels. This includes the result of sudden strokes, or multi-infarct dementia caused over time by a series of mini strokes, causing a lack of oxygen to brain cells. Symptoms of this type of dementia depend on severity but can range from mood swings and depression to loss of specific functions, depending on the area damaged.
Dementia with Lewy bodies refers to the type of dementia associated with tiny spherical protein bodies that form inside nerve cells. The symptoms are often similar to Alzheimers, including memory loss and speech difficulties.
Brain cell deterioration can result from degenerative conditions including the rare Picks Disease, infections such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), toxins such as alcohol, and head injury.
Dementia-like symptoms can also appear in treatable conditions such as vitamin deficiency, tumours or depression, and are a result of a reversible change in brain chemistry rather than cell death.
The latter makes it particularly important not to panic when conditions commonly associated with dementia first appear. Many people automatically assume that memory loss or trouble concentrating is inevitable as they get older and view them as a morbid sign of things to come, but this is not necessarily so. Symptoms are often caused by something much less sinister and consultation with a doctor can be all that is needed to dispel any worries.
At present there is no way to cure or prevent Alzheimers. For those who develop the disease, there is hope in the use of drugs during early stages of illness that may delay the progression of dementia. There are many substances derived from plants and herbs, or 'smart' drugs which may delay the onset of the disease, of which most conventional doctors are unaware.
Written by Claire Jackson.
03/06/2009