Dementia is a hot topic and with an aging population it is not surprising that Alzheimer’s disease takes center stage when age related conditions are discussed; it has in fact become the most discussed of all types of dementia amongst health professionals and the public. Alzheimer’s disease gradually causes deterioration in the memory and is currently affecting one in ten of people aged 65 and over; although current diagnosis is not perfect, the accuracy levels are up to 94 percent at best, 87 percent at worst. The world started focusing on the disease only about thirty years ago although was first discovered in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, a German physician; its effects are not fully understood even today with all the research that has been carried out.

Studies into the disorder have shown you have a grater chance of acquiring Alzheimer’s the older you become. The problem of early diagnosis is often down to the sufferer, who refuses to admit that anything is wrong even when they start to experience some of the symptoms; this often cause delays in the diagnosis.

Dementia covers quite a broad spectrum of problems but they are all, including Alzheimer’s disease, currently treated in a similar fashion. Unfortunately, because there is still so much that is unknown about the disease, there is no definite way to treat it although some symptoms can be improved or slowed down with drugs. The three main medications currently approved for treatments of Alzheimer’s disease are: Donepezil, Tacrine, and Rivastigmine; all of these have been shown to improve the cognition by about half a year.

Memantine is a new drug that slows deterioration during the later stages and is a derivative of the decades old anti-influenza drug Amantadine; it is now usually prescribed to Alzheimer’s patients who are already using Donepezil. Memantine side effects are minimal but it is the first treatment to show a distinct effect on patients with a serious condition; most of the drug is passed out again when the patient urinates (about 80 percent), virtually without any change taking place.

Alzheimer’s disease is considered to be a major public health challenge because the average age of the industrialized world’s population is increasing. in the United States it is fourth in the list of fatal diseases. It is not just the human cost of Alzheimer’s that has to be taken into consideration but also the monetary costs surrounding long term care; it is already costing 40 billion dollars every year in the USA, with this figure expected to increase. The National Institute on Aging spends half of its annual funding on research into this age related disease; global testing into various treatments are currently being investigated with hundreds of compounds under scrutiny.

One of the few factors that you can change to alter your risk of developing dementia is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In fact researchers believe the happier and healthier someone is with Alzheimer’s, the slower his or her decline. At the time of writing this condition primarily affects men and women over sixty years of age; nevertheless, there have been occasional incidences of people contracting it before the age of 60.