Alzheimer's Disease

“Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease of the brain that is characterized by impairment of memory and a disturbance in at least one other thinking function” (Bronstein & Pulst, 2003). When we hear about Alzheimer’s disease we automatically think of older people. This is because this disease most often occurs in adults after the age of 65. Statistics show that one in eight individuals will have Alzheimer’s after they reach age 65 (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2002). Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, which is any medical condition that affects the brain (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2002).
A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is said to be a “diagnosis by exclusion” (Bronstein & Pulst, 2003). This means that there is no certain test just for Alzheimer’s, but many tests that rule out other diseases. The early stages deal with short-term memory loss. Examples of this include forgetting to turn off the stove, forgetting what medications were taken in a ...