Alzheimer's disease is defined as a neurological disorder where the death of brain cells occur leading to deterioration in memory capacity and cognitive functioning. It is found to be the leading cause of dementia and progressively worsens over time. Alzheimer's disease is seen to affect persons that are older, specifically from the ages of 65 and over. The leading cause of Alzheimer's is brain cell death, where there is a loss of nerve cell connections, resulting in an overall decrease is physical brain size. After an autopsy, it is usually seen that there is the presence of tangles of plaques surrounding the nerve tissues. These plaques are insoluble and are a result of the build-up of amyloid-beta protein within the neurons from the degradation of tau protein (Gong, Grundke-Igbal and Igbal 2010).
The causes of Alzheimer's are attributed to causes such as, the inheritance of specific gene, stress, DNA methylation in the brain and even lifestyle choices like smoking. Familial early onset Alzheimer's is linked to the inheritance of specific genes (Tanzi 2012). Alzheimer's is characterized by the progressive loss of cognitive function, like reasoning capabilities; speak impairments, marked changes in personalities and memory recollection (Hyman et al 2012). The progressiveness of the disease allows it to be separated into three stages, preclinical, where there are no observable signs as yet, mild cognitive impairment and finally complete dementia. .
Diagnosing of Alzheimer's disease is not a simple task as there is no one test that give a definitive result to the presence of the disease. Cognitive tests are done to differentiate Alzheimer's from dementia by asking questions such as "what is your age?" and diagnosed according by scoring the questions. A score of 26 and below indicates the presence of Alzheimer's disease (Hodkinson 2012). However, there also genetic testing with known genes being linked to the disease, such as APOE-e4 indicates occurrence is higher in persons over 55 years old (Alzheimer's Association 2013).
