Alzheimers Disease
Alzheimers Disease tends to affect mainly people who are older, usually over 60 years of age. However, there have been rare cases where it can affect people decades earlier, in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
There do not appear to be any warning signs which would tell the sufferer or his friends and family, that Alzheimers is about to strike. Alzheimers can descend without warning and may deteriorate rapidly or slowly - the sufferer has no control over this.
One of the sad facts about Alzheimers is that it causes memory loss which is permanent - denying its victim their cache of memories from an earlier life. In fact, there are many similar types of dementias which can afflict people in their old age - and often some of these can be mistaken for Alzheimers.
Be sure to get Alzheimers Disease properly diagnosed
It is very important to get a proper diagnosis and to pin down the exact problem. For example, depression and Alzheimers may be indistinguishable in a patient. Depression does not tend to be long term whereas Alzheimers Disease is.
The elderly can mistakenly be diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimers Disease when really; the real cause of their problem is depression. If this error is made then the patient will not receive the correct treatment. In old age, patients suffer from many diseases because the immune system ceases to be as efficient as it once was. A properly functioning immune system is one which can recognize and kill alien viruses, cells and bacteria.
To date there appears to be some evidence that Alzheimers Disease may result from having some sort of immune system malfunction which then results in creating the protein which is responsible for destroying the brain tissues and cells of those afflicted with this condition.
One of the more controversial theories is that eating meat could result in Alzheimers Disease. This has been rejected by the vast majority of doctors and researchers on the basis that the disease does not afflict only meat eaters.
Another controversial theory is that there is a link between Aluminium and Alzheimers Disease. This theory came about due to many post mortem findings excessive amounts of aluminium in the brain. However, some studies have shown that aluminium has a propensity to collect in the brains of older people - regardless of whether or not they go on to develop Alzheimers Disease. Further, nearly all of us are exposed to this metal because there are vast quantities of it in nature. But studies are unable to show why this would cause a problem in some people's' brains.
