What Is Alzheimer's Disease?  By MemoryCare.com

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia among Americans. Adults aged 60 and older are at the greatest risk of developing Alzheimer’s and that risk increases with advanced age, although the disease has been known to occur in adults in their 30s and 40s.

While scientists still don’t know exactly what causes dementia, they do know that these factors can increase the odds of developing Alzheimer’s:

• Advanced age
• Genetics/family history of Alzheimer’s disease
• Cardiovascular issues including hypertension and high cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Excessive alcohol consumption over an extended period of time
• Smoking tobacco products
• Congenital cognitive impairment
• Obesity

Contrary to popular belief, Alzheimer’s disease is not considered to be a part of normal aging.

Alzheimer's vs. Dementia

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, is characterized by a number of symptoms, including:

• Memory loss
• Decline in cognitive skills
• Difficulty focusing on everyday tasks
• Language processing issues
• Poor impulse control
• Lack of judgment
• Difficulty performing activities of daily living
• Aggression
• Disorientation
• Depression
• Sleep disturbance

People who present with dementia-like symptoms are usually diagnosed with dementia pending an in-depth investigation by their doctor. This is important to understand, because while many types of dementia include similar symptoms, the treatments differ.

In order to make a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, medical professionals conduct a number of tests, such as blood tests, urinalysis and brain imaging. Doctors also review the patient’s medical history and look for any possible links between the dementia symptoms and other issues, such as hormonal imbalances, adverse reactions to medications, brain injury or cardiovascular disease.

Once all other possible causes of the dementia symptoms are ruled out, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease may be made.

Common Types of Dementia

While Alzheimer’s disease causes approximately 70% of all dementia cases, there are a number of other acute and chronic conditions and diseases that also trigger memory loss, disordered thinking and other dementia symptoms. These include:

• Lewy body dementia
• Vascular dementia 
• Frontotemporal dementia
• Mixed dementia

Lewy body dementia is the second most common type of progressive-degenerative dementia behind Alzheimer’s disease. It causes a collection of symptoms, such as visual hallucinations, which can lead to aggressive and/or self-harming behaviors. As with Alzheimer’s, this type of dementia also causes memory loss, confusion, sleep disruption and depression.

Although relatively rare, rapid-onset dementias can also be triggered by autoimmune diseases, vitamin deficiencies, chronic seizures, cancer and exposure to toxic substances. Unlike most types of dementia, some cases of rapid-onset dementia can be treated successfully if the root cause is identified relatively soon after symptoms appear.