This disease is a progressive form of dementia which is caused by brain injuries and diseases that affect your memory, behavior and thinking. These changes influence your daily activities. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. People who have Alzheimer’s are diagnosed after age 65. If it’s diagnosed before then, it’s referred to as early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
As you know, there’s no cure for this disease, but you can slow its progression with certain treatments. People often put the equal sign between dementia and Alzheimer’s, but these two conditions are not the same, because Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia. Also, there’s no single cause of Alzheimer’s disease and experts have named some risk factors such as age, family history and genetics.
It’s important to know having one or two of these factors doesn’t mean you’ll develop Alzheimer’s disease—it only raises your risk level. Everyone has periods of forgetfulness from time to time, but patients with Alzheimer’s have symptoms that worsen over time. Check out these symptoms and if you notice something unusual, speak with your doctor!
