Among the incredible variety of diseases and illnesses people suffer from there are some that kill quickly and unexpectedly, invisibly crawling under the skin and silently doing their wicked job; and yet there are those that torture the body of a victim for years, killing every part of the organism, every tissue, every single cell harrowingly slowly, inevitably dragging a person to death through the phase of vegetative existence.

Alzheimer’s is one of the irreversible fatal diseases, which, affecting the normal functioning of the brain, aim at destroying the whole body. Nowadays this mental condition is named the number six disorder leading to death with about 5.2 million of sufferers in the USA alone. It is also one of the most costly conditions, which as well requires the constant presence of a caregiver to help a sufferer manage to fulfill everyday simplest activities.

Targeting usually people over 65 Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, which results in the progressive decline in mental function. As many as 5 % of people older than 65 are said to have the signs of this condition, and about half of all people over 85 suffer from the disease. Moreover, early onset Alzheimer’s disease sometimes affects people younger than 65 and is responsible for less than 10% of the illness cases.   

In the healthy brain its nerve cells, called neurons, generate energy and send signals to each other with the help of neurotransmitters. This process ensures the normal functioning of the whole body making it possible for a human being to think, remember, feel, speak, move, etc. In the course of Alzheimer’s disease brain degeneration takes place. Neurons and connections between them deteriorate and they subsequently die. This results in the disruption of the process of signals creation and transmission from one cell to another, which leads to the impairment in the body functioning.

This process is suggested to be caused either by the deficiency of the brain chemicals or by the genetic defect. It is known that brain cells get damaged by the deposits of certain protein plaques between them, which is said to take place long before the clinical signs of the disease appear, and the tangles of the twisted, changed from the normal, fiber of another protein inside the neurons.

It is suggested that the formation of plaques and tangles takes place in all the people while they age, but the described condition is caused by far more rapid, uncontrolled, and multiple formation of them.

They initially appear in the brain areas responsible for memory, thus, impairing a person’s ability to remember things, especially those recently learned. Later, the disease affects language and reasoning abilities. With the lapse of time, a person kind of forgets how to do the simplest things and finally cannot even feed him/herself knowing no how to hold a spoon.

Alzheimer’s disease is, for the time being, an incurable condition. Scientists have only developed several medications capable of relieving some of the symptoms, which will make the life of a sufferer and his or her caregiver easier; however no drugs can reverse or stop the progression of the illness.

Although it is often noted that a person who helps Alzheimer’s disease victim is exposed to great burden, which, in the long run, affects all the aspects of a caregiver’s life, significantly changing them not for better; however, people suffering form this disease have pretty little time. They usually live for about seven years after the diagnosis is made. Very seldom they can survive for fourteen years, while many sufferers can make only four years.  

Sadly, but in spite of the extensive research made to better understand this condition, scientists can nowadays offer little help concerning the prolongation of the life of the Alzheimer’s sufferers and the significant suppressing of the condition.