Alzheimer’s disease is a disorder of the brain that causes dementia, which is a condition characterized by poor memory, mental disorientation, and impaired judgment. Dementia may affect a wide range of cognitive abilities including language comprehension, attention span, memory, reasoning skills, learning capability, and even personality traits. There are many causes of dementia such as strokes, Parkinson’s disease, head trauma, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS, but the leading cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is progressive and terminal. This means that after its onset, the symptoms of dementia always get worse as the brain progressively deteriorates until eventually, the disease results in death. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers estimate that as many as 4.5 million Americans have the disease. However, since a doctor cannot be certain of an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis until either a brain biopsy is taken (which is rare) or a postmortem examination of the brain is conducted, it is hard to know for sure how many people are currently living with the disease.

While people in their 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s can get Alzheimer’s disease, it usually begins after age 60, and the risk of developing the disease increases sharply with age. Around 5 percent of men and women ages 65 to 74 have Alzheimer’s, but this number increases to nearly half of those age 85 and older. It is important to note, however, that Alzheimer’s disease is not just a normal consequence of aging but is instead a pathological condition.