When you look into Alzheimer's causes and treatments, you will understand that this disease involves cognitive decline and memory loss due to the death of brain cells. This gets progressively worse over time, until patients may have no memory left of anything from their life. Loved ones are forgotten, childhood memories can quickly be erased, and even what occurred yesterday won't stick in the brain long enough to be remembered. Unfortunately, there is no cure at this time but there are many treatment options available to you that can help you to better cope both mentally and physically with the disease.

Alzheimer's Disease Commonality:

In the United States alone, there are nearly five million people living with Alzheimer's over the age of 65, and still many under 65 who also cope with this disease on a daily basis. Dementia, in its many forms, is one of the worst ways to decline cognitively and can cause pain not only to the person who is living with the symptoms, but to family and friends around them as well. As this disorder becomes increasingly worse, the brain size shrinks and the tissues lose nerve cells, which causes what is called "tangled" in the brain cells. These tangles can be seen during an autopsy but cannot be tested or seen in the living brain of a patient. These tangles are within the neurons and are caused by the disintegration of the tau protein.

Risks Associated With Alzheimer's:

When studying Alzheimer's causes and treatments the risks of the disease can sometimes be just as important as the treatments, so that you know what you can do to possibly prevent the disease from occurring in the first place. Many of the most recent findings include not smoking, engaging in regular exercise and healthy eating as preventative measures, while others suggest that diabetes and heart disease may lead to Alzheimer's. Unfortunately, some of the risks are absolutely unavoidable, such as age, genetics, the apoliproprotein E or APOE gene, and being female. Some modifiable factors that can be changed or prevented are cholesterol and blood pressure levels, head injury, low education or occupational standing and estrogen hormone replacement.

Treatment Options For Alzheimers:

As Alzheimer's causes and treatments are examined, more options become available from memory loss to sleep disorders, and many of these therapies and treatments involve medication. Some symptoms are easily adjustable such as sleeping disorders, while others like memory loss can be much more difficult to treat properly. Another medication and therapeutic resolution that can be found for Alzheimer's patients is for mood swings and personality changes. When the cells of the brain begin changing, shrink and become damaged, people can change the way that they act and speak altogether, and this is often irreversible. But sometimes the mood swings and depression that follow can be treated with the proper mixture of medication and therapy. Speaking to your physician as soon as these symptoms begin developing rather than waiting to see if they will go away on their own is the best practice here. The sooner that they are treated, the better chance you will have of leading a normal life for a longer time.