Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurologic disease of the brain leading to the irreversible loss of neurons and the loss of intellectual abilities, including memory and reasoning, which become severe enough to impede social or occupational functioning. Alzheimer's disease is also known as simply Alzheimer's, and Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (SDAT) .

During the course of the disease plaques and tangles develop within the structure of the brain. This causes brain cells to die. Patients with Alzheimer's also have a deficiency in the levels of some vital brain chemicals which are involved with the transmission of messages in the brain - neurotransmitters.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. The disease gets worse as it develops - it is a progressive disease. There is no current cure for Alzheimer's, although there are ways of slowing down its advance and helping patients with some of the symptoms. Alzheimer's is also a terminal disease - it is incurable and causes death.

According the National Institute on Aging, there are estimated to be between 2.4 million and 4.5 million Americans who have Alzheimer's. One third of all seniors in America die with Alzheimer's or some other dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Deaths from Alzheimer's have risen by 68% from 2000 to 2010.

There are approximately 417,000 people in the UK with Alzheimer's, according to the Alzheimer's Society.

People who lead active lifestyles are more likely to slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease, while active people who are Alzheimer's free have a lower risk of developing the disease or any kind of dementia, researchers from the University of California reported at the annual meeting of RSNA (the Radiological Society of North America) in November 2012.

Lifestyle factors that help ward off or slow down Alzheimer's include yard work, gardening, dancing, riding an exercise bike, and any type of aerobic exercise.
Why the name Alzheimer's disease?
Aloysius Alzheimer was a German neuropathologist and psychiatrist. He is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia" in 1906, which Kraepelin later identified as Alzheimer's disease - naming it after his colleague.

In 1901, while he worked at the city mental asylum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Dr. Alzheimer had a 51 year old patient called Mrs. Auguste Deter. The patient had distinct behavioral symptoms which did not fit any existing diagnoses - she had rapidly failing memory, disorientation, confusion, had trouble expressing her thoughts, and was suspicious about her family members and the hospital staff. Her symptoms progressed relentlessly. Dr. Alzheimer wrote that she once said to him "I have lost myself."

source:medicalnewstoday