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Alzheimer'sAlzheimer's is the most common form of dementia among older people. Dementia is a condition that affects the brain's way of functioning is memory, thought, and language. Alzheimer's initially affects those three functions of the brain. As of right now, there is no known cause or treatment for Alzheimer's.The disease usually affects individuals after the age of 60, with risk increasing with age. It is thought that nearly 4.5 million Americans are affected by Alzheimer's. The disease was named after a German doctor, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, in 1906. Dr. Alzheimer noticed that there was unusual brain tissue in a woman who died of an abnormal mental illness. Abnormal clumps (now called amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (now called neurofibrillary tangles) were found. Today, these plaques and tangles in the brain are considered signs of Alzheimer's disease. Other brain changes have also been found in patients with Alzheimer's. Dead nerve cells that are important to memory and other functions of the brain are one of them. Also, connections between nerve cells have found to be disrupted. Alzheimer's comes on slowly, so the first symptom is forgetfulness. A lot of elders suffer from mild forgetfulness, such as inability to solve a math problem, or remembering events and names of family members or objects. Many of these people won't have Alzheimer's, but some in the early stages do. As the disease progresses, these symptoms become more noticeable and more bothersome. They begin to fail in recognizing familiar faces, as well as places. Eventually they may become aggressive, have problems speaking, understanding, reading and writing. They may wander away from home, and eventually need to put in total care. Early diagnosis enables the best treatment and preparation for the future. Doctors are able to correctly diagnose the disease 90% of the time. The only definitive way to determine if the disease is present is to identify whether or not there are plaques and tangles in the brain tissue.
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