Alzheimer’s is a medical disease that gets progressively worse with time. It affects the brain and how it functions. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia in people over the age of 65 years old. It is believed that Alzheimer’s develops long before the symptoms of dementia become apparent in the sufferer.
It is estimated that there are over 750,000 people in the UK and over 5 million people in the USA with the condition. The figure is set to increase drastically over the next 20 years throughout the world.
The disease at present is incurable, although there is a great effort in trying to find a cure throughout the world. As yet there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
If a person gets Alzheimer’s they will worsen over a period of time with symptoms that vary and at different speeds. The disease will eventually lead to the person needing care and support.
The First Discovery of Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease was first discovered in 1907 by a German Psychiatrist called Dr. Alois Alzheimer. He noticed that a female patient of his, slowly lost her memory and the ability to think and talk and that she developed judgment problems.
After she died, he looked at her brain through a microscope and noticed that her brain had abnormal growths, which he named plaques and tangles. These changes occur in the brain of everyone with Alzheimer’s disease.
