What Is Alzheimer’s Disease and Is There a Cure?

The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease affects thinking, impacting memory and behavior. In this article, we look at Alzheimer’s and its characteristic signs and symptoms.

What is Alzheimer’s disease?

In Americans aged 65 and over, Alzheimer’s is currently the sixth leading cause of death, as well as a leading cause of poor health and disability.

Through improvements in medicine and technology, healthcare providers have achieved significant gains in recent decades in the treatment of many debilitating and life-threatening conditions. Yet Alzheimer’s disease remains on the increase. Between 2000 and 2018, deaths from Alzheimer’s more than doubled, increasing by 146%. By comparison, during that timeframe, deaths from heart disease, the leading cause of death, fell by 7.8%.

About 60% of 70-year-old Alzheimer’s patients are predicted to die before reaching the age of 80, compared with only 30% of people without the disease. People over 65 live an average of 4 to 8 years after receiving an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, yet some may live as long as 20 years. Progression can be slow and unpredictable.

This fact underscores that Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition-it causes symptoms of dementia that worsen over time. In its early stages, Alzheimer’s causes mild memory loss. In its later stages, the disease can be debilitating, impairing the patient’s ability to respond to their environment or to carry on conversations.

Who discovered Alzheimer’s?

The condition was described for the first time in the early 20th century by Alois Alzheimer, a German physician who linked microscopic brain changes to profound memory loss and worsening psychological changes in one of his patients. Following the patient’s death, Dr. Alzheimer performed an autopsy, observing dramatic shrinkage of the brain, combined with abnormal deposits. First describing what he termed “a peculiar disease” in 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer is regarded as a pioneer by scientists today for his groundbreaking work, his close clinical relationship with his patient, and his use of new scientific tools to understand how physiological brain changes produced symptoms.

What are the main symptoms?

The Alzheimer’s Association identifies 10 key symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease:

How far are we from finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease?

There is currently no single effective treatment or identified cure for the condition. Nevertheless, some drug and non-drug treatment options can alleviate individual symptoms. For example, the FDA has approved cholinesterase inhibitors (including donepezil, galantamine, and rivastigmine) and memantine to treat memory loss and confusion associated with Alzheimer’s. These drugs cannot stop or repair the damage to brain cells that Alzheimer’s causes, but they can slow down the progression of symptoms for a limited time.

The Alzheimer’s Association’s mission is to eradicate Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia by increasing early detection, reducing risks associated with the disease, and accelerating global research. Until we find a cure, the Alzheimer’s Association is committed to assisting people affected by Alzheimer’s and their families, providing vital care and support.

Originally published at https://markstevens.com on November 21, 2020.