Your Doctor Guide

DEFINITION
Alzheimer's is a common cause for the case of dementia - the loss of intellectual and social skills severe enough to affect daily activities. In Alzheimer's disease, brain tissue health has decreased, causing a decline in memory and mental abilities.

Alzheimer's is not part of the normal aging process, but the risk increases with age. Five percent of people aged between 65-74 have Alzheimer's disease, and nearly half of people aged over 85 years of age have Alzheimer's disease.

Although the disease is no cure, treatment can improve the quality of life for people who have Alzheimer's disease. Those with Alzheimer's need support and affection from friends and family to cope.

 
SYMPTOMS
Alzheimer's disease may begin with a little memory loss and confusion, but will eventually cause mental impairment that can not be changed and destroy the person's ability to remember, think, learn, and imagination.

Memory loss
Everyone has lapses in memory. It is normal when you forget where you put your car keys or forgetting names of people that you rarely see. But the memory problems associated with prolonged and bad Alzhaimer. People with Alzhaimer possible:

• Repeating something that has been done
• Often forgotten the words and promises that he did
• Often misplaced something, often put something in place that is not fair
• In the end, forget the names of family members and objects used in daily

Problematic when thinking abstractly
People with Alzheimer's have trouble thinking about something, especially in the form of numbers.

The difficulty in finding the right words
It is difficult for people with Alzhaimer to find the right words to convey their thinking or when they engage the conversation. Will ultimately affect their ability to read and write.

Disorientation
People with Alzheimer's often lose the ability to remember the time and date, and will find themselves lost in the actual environment familiar to them.

Lost the ability to assess
Resolve daily problems is difficult and becomes increasingly difficult until the end is something that feels impossible for those who have Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's has characteristics very difficult to do something that requires planning, decision making and assessment.

It is difficult to perform familiar tasks
Difficult in performing routine tasks that require sustained steps in the process of settlement, for example cooking. In the end, people with Alzheimer's may forget how to do something even the most basic.

Changes in personality
People with Alzheimer's show:
• Mood swings
• Lost trust toward others
• Increased stubbornness
• Depression
• Restlessness
• Aggressive



Causes & Risk Factors
Cause
None of the factors that appear to be the cause of Alzheimer's. Scientists believe that this disease is a combination of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors. Alzheimer's damage and kill brain cells.

Two types of damage to brain cells (neurons) that are common in people with Alzheimer's:
• Plaques / plaque. Clumps of protein called beta-amyloid affects communication between brain cells. Although there are no known cases of Alzheimer's that causes death, the facts show that the process of abnormal beta-amyloid protein is likely to be the cause.
• tangles / tangles. Support structures in the brain cells depends on the normal function of a protein called tau. In people with Alzheimer's, threads of tau protein changes caused them to become insane. Many scientists believe that this is the damage to neurons and can cause death for patients with Alzheimer's.

  
Risk factors
Age
Alzhaimer Patients usually suffered by people aged over 65 years, but can also attack people under the age of 40. At least 5 percent of people aged between 65 and 74 have Alzheimer's. In people aged 85 and above the number increased to 50 percent.

Offspring
Risk of Alzheimer's that appears slightly higher if the relationship between first-degree relatives - parents and siblings - have Alzheimer's.

Gender
Women are more susceptible than men, this is because women generally live longer than men.

Mild cognitive impairment
People who have mild cognitive impairment have memory problems are worse than what might be expected at his age and has not been bad enough to classify as dementia. Many of those who are in this condition continues to have Alzheimer's disease.

Lifestyle
Same factors that put you at risk the same with heart disease also increases the likelihood you will get Alzheimer's disease. Examples are:
• Pressure
• High blood pressure
• High Cholesterol
• Lack of control of blood sugar
Keeping your body to stay fit is important to you - you should be able to train the mind properly. Several studies have shown that active in training the mind and mental health throughout your life, especially in the elderly will reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Level of education
The study found an association between low education and risk of Alzheimer's. But the precise underlying reasons are unknown. Some scientists theorize, the more often you use your brain synapses will be more that you create which will be available a lot of reserves in the old days. It would be difficult to find Alzheimer's in people who train the brain on a regular basis, or those who have higher education levels.