Alzheimer's Disease AD                                                                                   

There is loss of function and death of neurons, in the parts of brain responsible for learning and memory, leading to memory loss and dementia. The exact cause of Alzheimer's disease is not known.

        

Brain segment affected by AD on the right compared with a healthy brain segment (left). 

Alzheimer's Association data show that AD patients numbered 36 million all over the world, half of them in Asia (John Hopkins study). These numbers may increase four fold to 106 million by 2050. Asia numbers may increase from the current 12.6 million to 62.8 million, Europe from 7.5 million to 17.5 million and Africa from 1.3 to 6.5 million in 2050.

AD  now afflicts one in eight Americans over the age of 65 and some 47 percent of Americans over the age of 85. At the present rate, the estimated 4.5 million cases of Alzheimer's disease today can be expected to rise to around 16 million by 2050. In Europe, there are 7.5 million persons afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. With the aging of the baby boom generation over the next several decades, without safe and effective treatments and preventatives, a huge population of seniors stands to be robbed by this disease of the enjoyment of their later years. In addition to the burdens placed on patients and their families, insurance programs surely will face overwhelming demands on their services and resources.

The economic annual cost of the disease to the society is estimated at 200 billion dollars in the USA and an equal amount in Europe. Contrary to popular impression, the number of AD patients is increasing in India and China with improved lifestyles and increasing aging population. The worldwide annual cost of Alzheimer's disease to the society has been estimated at $ 604 billion in 2010 about 1% of global GDP for 36 million AD patients. The annual cost of caring for AD patients in the US will increase to 1 trillion dollar in 2050.

Some of celebreties with Alzheimer's disease are/were Ronald Reagan, Harold Wilson, Barry Goldwater, Jonathan Swift, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Bronston, Charlton Heston, Sugar Ray Robinson and Rita Hayworth.


Watch the Alzheimer's Video at :


http://www.alzheimers.org/rmedia/adanimation.htm

Historical Perspective:

100 years ago, Alois Alzheimer first described the disease which was later named after him, the Alzheimer's Disease.
         Alois Alzheimer (Fig. 1) was born on the 14th of June 1864 in Marktbreit am Main
(Germany) and died in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) on December 19, 1915.
Alzheimer’s most widely known contribution to the Neurosciences is the histological
description of the disease that was named after him by Emil Kraepelin (1). However,
research into this disease represents but a small segment of Alzheimer’s clinicopathological interests which were focused on the histopathology of the cerebral cortex in the mentally ill.Through his early histopathological research in psychiatry, Alzheimer became one of the founding fathers of neuropathology, nurturing a unique brain research tradition in Germany that lasted for almost a century. Alzheimer always thought of himself as a physician and was able to combine his innovative research with the demanding clinical duties of a psychiatrist.
         "What's your name?" - "Auguste." - "Family" - "Auguste." - "What is your husband?" - ". I think Auguste" world famous, this dialogue should be now. Led him, the young neurologist Alois Alzheimer and his patient Auguste Deter in 1901. The day before the woman had been admitted to the Urban Institute for Lunatics and Epileptics in Frankfurt am Main. Word for word had Alzheimer's assistant recorded the statements of the patient. Five years later, Alzheimer reported on the 37th Assembly of Southwest German Psychiatrists in Tübingen on the case. At that time, the first description was later named after Alzheimer's disease perceived as curious side issue. No one suspected in the auditorium that would one day millions of people suffer from this disease.