Battling Alzheimer

This is the third post in a series looking at how do you know if its Alzheimer’s disease?  The first two posts, Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s and Dementia-the Differences laid a foundation for the symptomology, characteristics and key definitions.  In this post, I’ll discuss how medical professionals actually get to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

So, as our story continues, your suspicions have been verified.  Grandpa does indeed have dementia.  As we learned in yesterday’s post, the question now becomes, “what is the cause of the dementia?” Is it Alzheimer’s disease or some imposter?

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Alzheimer’s experts now believe that the disease, and even the symptoms, begins many years before any formal diagnosis. German researchers Drs. Heiko and Eva Braak theorize that, if you looked, Alzheimer’s structures (plaques and tangles) could be found in the brains of teenagers, 60 years before serious symptoms develop. They have already found such structures in twenty-year-olds.

Current tests for Alzheimer’s are actually psychological and cognitive tests - the only absolute test for Alzheimer’s is a brain dissection. But according to the New York Times, a radioactive dye, PIB, has been developed that allows researchers to locate amyloid protein deposits, considered a sign of Alzheimer’s disease, in the brains of living people. The problem is that there are not yet any reliable medications to prevent the disease, so tests with PIB would tell more people they have the disease without being able to stop it.

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By Linda J Bruton

Alzheimer’s disease gets its name from Alois Alzheimerwho was born in Southern Germany in 1864. Dr Alzheimer first described the disease in 1906 after performing an autopsy on the brain of one of his patients. Dr. Alzheimer discovered that the brain had virtually turned to a “sticky goop” with abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers.

Today, these plaques and tangles in the brain are considered signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Alzheimer had been treating the patient for a mental disorder that he described as “madness” but realized that the brain of the patient had literally been destroyed.

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