Alzheimers Disease

The term Alzheimer's disease refers to a condition discovered by a doctor called Alois Alzheimer. In 1907 he wrote in medical journals about a woman of 51 who had died of dementia, whose brain he had examined under the microscope.

This examination showed changes he had never seen before. In some places parts of the brain were tangled together, and in other areas there was clumping of brain matter. As time went on, he discovered more "younger" people who had died of dementia exhibited the same brain abnormalities. This condition was to be known as Alzheimer's disease.

It was subsequently noted that the same type of dementia (with the same symptoms) occurred much more frequently in older people, i.e. when their brains were examined under a microscope, they showed the same abnormalities. 

At this time, only younger people were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease as this was the age range on which Lois Alzheimer had concentrated his studies. Older people were diagnosed with pre-senile dementia or Senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT).

This differentiation made things complicated. Because dementia in younger people is comparatively rare, nowadays the whole group is commonly described as Alzheimer's disease.

The term "Alzheimer's disease" can't possibly convey the complicated set of symptoms that make up this condition unless you personally know someone who suffers from it.

One of the best descriptions I've heard is "A living death". Another more medical term describes it as "the slow onset of memory loss with a gradual progression to a loss of judgement and changes in behaviour and temperament.

A more complicated and comprehensive definition from the Royal College of Physicians describes Alzheimers disease as:

"Dementia is the global impairment of higher functions, including memory, the capacity to solve the problems of day to day living, the performance of learned perceptuo-motor skills, the correct use of social skills, and the control of emotional reactions in the absence of gross clouding of consciousness".

Performance of "learned perceptuo-motor skills" in layman's terms simply means our learned responses such as washing, dressing and eating.
 
These definitions are only guides to the whole complicated medical condition known as Alzheimers disease.

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