Alzheimer's

I have done a lot of talking about my disease processes. Brian wants people to know about Alzheimer’s and living with that disease process.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia that as many as 5 million Americans have. It destroys brain cells, causing memory loss, changing thinking and behavior. It gets worse over time and it is fatal. It is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S.
By the time Brian went in for diagnosis, it was fairly easy for the doctors to see the damage Alzheimer’s had done to his brain. His CT scan showed his cerebral cortex, the outer layer involved in memory, thinking, judgment and speech. had shrunken due to the disease process. He wasn’t able to perform simple tasks such as drawing a clock or remembering three words that the doctor had given him to remember just a few short minutes before. Brian was already at the moderate stage of the disease process.
As we age, we have occasional problems remembering and maybe some slowed thinking. With Alzheimer’s, serious memory loss, confusion and other major changes in the way our minds work are not a normal process of aging. The brain has 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) that communicates with many others to form networks. These networks have special jobs such as thinking learning and remembering. Others help us to hear, see and smell and tell our muscles when to move. In Alzheimer’s, the networks break down and eventually they die. Scientists are not really sure where the breakdown starts.
Two abnormal structures called plaques, (protein deposits that build up between nerve cells), and tangles, (twisted fibers of another type of protein that form inside dying cells), are prime suspects in damaging and killing nerve cells. Scientists are not absolutely sure what role plaques and tangles play in Alzheimer’s disease. Most experts believe they somehow block communication among nerve cells and disrupt activities that cells need to survive.
Brian has early onset Alzheimer’s, meaning it started before he was 65. Brian is only 57. It may affect people as young as those in their thirties.
Alzheimer’s had no current cure, but there are treatments, such as Aricept for the symptoms. Most of what we know about Alzheimer’s has been learned in the last 15 years. There is an accelerating worldwide effort under way to find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, or prevent it from developing.