What is Alzheimer's disease?

Alzheimer's is a disease of the brain that causes a steady decline in memory. This results in dementia - loss of intellectual functions (thinking, remembering and reasoning) severe enough to interfere with everyday life.

Alzheimer's disease usually begins gradually, causing a person to forget recent events and to have difficulty performing familiar tasks. How rapidly the disease advances varies from person to person, causing confusion, personality and behavior changes, and impaired judgment. Communication becomes difficult as the person with Alzheimer's struggles to find words, finish thoughts, or follow directions. Eventually, person's with Alzheimer's become totally unable to care for themselves.

What causes Alzheimer's disease?

Scientists are still not certain what causes Alzheimer's disease. Research suggests that the central problem in Alzheimer's disease is malfunction and death of nerve cells, but scientists are still working to learn why this happens.

What are the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease?

The strongest evidence so far points to age and family history. Increasing age is the greatest known risk factor--about 10 percent of people have Alzheimer's by the time they reach age 65, and nearly 50 percent are affected by age 85. Alzheimer's strikes individuals from every walk of life, every ethnic group, and every income level.

Isn't memory loss a natural part of aging?

Yes and No. Everyone has forgotten where they parked the car or the name of an acquaintance at one time or another. And many healthy individuals are less able to remember certain kinds of information as they get older.

The symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are much more severe than such simple memory lapses. Alzheimer's symptoms affect communication, learning, thinking, reasoning, and can have an impact on a person's work and social life. Click here to view additional warning signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Have more questions?

Try the virtual reference service for the Alzheimer's Association Green-Field Library. Ask a librarian for answers to your questions on Alzheimer's and related dementias through e-mail and live chat.