Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and accounts for at least half of all dementias. It causes about 23,000 deaths a year in the United States, making it the eighth leading cause of death in the elderly population. Alzheimer's disease is named after Alois Alzheimer, the German physician who identified it in 1907. The cause of Alzheimer's remains elusive and resistant many treatments.
People with Alzheimer's disease have an atrophy of the cortical tissue within the brain. When examined at autopsy the brain shows abnormal fibers that appear to be tangles of brain tissue filaments (neurofibrillary tangles) and senile plaques (patches of degenerative nerve endings). This damage is believed to cause disruption to transmission of impulses amongst brain cells.
It is this damage that is thought to produce the symptoms of the disease.
People over the age of 65 are most frequently affected by Alzheimer's and it is termed ‘late onset’. So-called ‘early onset’, a very rare form of Alzheimer's disease can develop in people as young as 40 years and in middle age.
Are You at Risk of Alzheimer's?
Alzheimer’s disease begins to damage the brain years before symptoms appear. Why pathological changes occur in the brain leading to such profound damage is not clear. Risk factors are things that increase your chances of developing Alzheimer's disease. Some are preventable, such as exercise, some not, for example genetic factors and age.
Age and Alzheimer's disease
Age is the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer's.
At 65 to 70 years your risk is about 1.5%
At 70 to 74 years your risk is about 3.5%
At 75 to 79 years your risk is about 6.8%
Your risk of Alzheimer's nearly doubles every 5 years so by the age of 95 nearly one half will have Alzheimer's disease.
Genetic risk factor and Alzheimer's
Genetic risk factors as a cause of Alzheimer's disease is an area of intense investigation.
# Having a parent or sibling with Alzheimer’s increases your risk by two to three and a half times. The more individuals in a family with Alzheimer's, the greater the risk of developing the disease.
# There are a very small number of people world-wide who have a defective gene on chromosome 14 or 21 that seems to trigger Alzheimer’s disease with early onset, often between the ages of 35 and 60 years.
# It is known that a protein called Apolipoprotein E, of which we all have a copy of one of three types, affects the our chances of getting Alheimer’s disease. If you have two copies of the E4 version you have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s, the E2 version seems to give protection against it.
# People with Down's syndrome (Trisomy 21) develop the pathological changes but not always the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's.
It is believed that in most cases genetic factors merely increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
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