Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder named after German physician “Alois Alzheimer”, who first introduced it in 1906. Today, we know that Alzheimer’s is a progressive and fatal brain disease. Alzheimer’s is a disorder which causes changes in the brain. Alzheimer’s disease gradually destroys the ability to reason, remember, imagine, and learn. It’s different from the mild forgetfulness normally observed in older people. It is a slow disease which causes mild memory problems and ends up causing serious mental damage. Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging and is not something that inevitably happens in later life. Over the course of the disease, people with Alzheimer’s no longer recognize themselves or much about the world around them. Most people with Alzheimer’s disease are age 65 years or more. The chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease goes up as a person gets older. The disease seems to run in families. Alzheimer’s disease always gets worse as the time passes, but how quickly this happens varies. Some people lose the ability to do daily activities very early. Others may still do fairly well until much later in the disease.

A progressive decline in mental capability is because of degeneration of brain tissue,

• Age: Generally common among adults
• Genetics: Sometimes runs in families
• Gender, Lifestyle: Not Significant factors

It is usual to become slightly forgetful with increasing age, but severe impair–ment of short–term memory is a sign of Alzheimer’s disease. In such disorder, brain cells steadily degenerate and deposits of an irregular protein build up in the brain . Consequently, the brain tissue shrinks, and there is a pro–gressive loss of mental abilities, Known as dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is the general cause of dementia. Occasionally, younger people are affected by the disease. The underlying cause of the tissue destruction is unidentified, even though genetic factors might be complicated.

Alzheimerr’s and Dementia
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disease of the brain that results in dementia. The terms Alzheimer’s and Dementia are often used interchangeably, but they are two distinct concepts with many differences between them. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia – in fact, almost two–thirds of dementia cases are due to Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of mental decline, or dementia. But dementia has many other causes. Dementia is a broader term than Alzheimer’s and refers to any brain syndrome resulting in problems with memory, orientation, judgment, executive functioning, and communication. Although some kinds of memory loss are normal parts of aging, the changes due to aging are not severe enough to interfere with the level of function.

Dementia is a syndrome characterized by:

1. impairment in memory
2. impairment in another area of thinking such as the ability to reason and organize thoughts, the ability to use language, or the ability to see the visual world accurately.

These impairments are severe enough to cause a decline in the patient’s usual level of functioning.

Sometimes, dementia is caused due to multiple medical conditions. In these cases, it is often called as “Mixed dementia.” The most common form of mixed dementia is due to both Alzheimer’s and vascular disease.

Many different diseases can cause dementia, but Alzheimer’s disease is by far the most common cause for dementia in the United States and in most countries in the world.