Article Medically Reviewed By:
Norman L. Foster, MD
Director, Center for Alzheimer's Care, Imaging and Research; Professor, Department of Neurology; University of Utah; Salt Lake City, UT
Overview
What Is It?
Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include forgetfulness, difficulty using or remembering words and difficulty concentrating. It is the most common cause of dementia in older people.
Alzheimer's disease is perhaps one of the best-known illnesses associated with old age. A complex disease of the brain, Alzheimer's now affects as many as 5.3 million people in the United States , according to the Alzheimer's Association.
As the U.S. population grows older, the number of people with Alzheimer's disease is expected to increase. But Alzheimer's is not a normal or inevitable part of aging. It is a progressive disease that starts in one part of the brain and gradually invades other regions. As it progresses, Alzheimer's destroys nerve cells within the brain and the connections between them, leaving behind clumps of proteins called plaques and twisted fibers in brain cells called tangles. Over time, this destruction erodes the most vital abilities of human nature: language, learning, memory and reason. Personality and behavior also are dramatically affected by Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in older people. Dementia is a medical term used to describe deterioration in thinking ability severe enough to disrupt a person's normal activities and relationships. The disease usually begins in people 65 or older, but in rare instances it can affect individuals as young as 30. An estimated one in eight people over 65 have Alzheimer's disease, and 50 percent of people with the disease are over age 85.
Women are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than men; more than twice the number of women as men die of the disease per year. This may be in part because women live longer than men so more women have the disease at any time than men.
Early symptoms of the disease include forgetfulness, difficulty using or remembering words and difficulty concentrating. For some individuals, these early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease may be mistaken for what many people consider "natural" symptoms of aging. But symptoms caused by Alzheimer's disease worsen over time, while the short-term memory problems that trouble many people as they age do not progress to other more serious symptoms.
The rate that Alzheimer's symptoms progress varies greatly from person to person. Some people have Alzheimer's only for the last three years of life, while others may live with the disease for 20 years.
Symptoms of Alzheimer's often are divided into mild, moderate and severe phases, though symptoms in these phases often overlap. The Alzheimer's Association breaks down these phases even further. Because Alzheimer's damages the brain, unpredictable and uncharacteristic behavior is common. Anxiety, aggressiveness or ...
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