How wonderful it would be to lead a long, healthy, independently-lived life and fade-out gracefully, say somewhere around the nineties or even a hundred! But this is a blessing very few manage to get. For many beyond the 60s it is more a story of illness, disease, disabilities, dependence, depression, and a painful departure.

Among the major afflictions an aging person dreads today is Alzheimer's disease, or simply AD. A form of dementia, AD is a disease of the brain initially affecting the patient's ability to remember, or even think and speak clearly, and progressing to a stage where he may become a vegetative recluse unable to recognize anything around him, and failing to even take care of his personal hygiene, besides becoming disoriented. A patient at this stage will necessarily need a person to be always with him. According to a U.S. report, around 5% of men and women in the age group 65 to 74 suffer from it, while half of those aged 85 or beyond are most likely to be affected by it. A slow moving disease, patients are known to live anywhere from 8 to 10 years after diagnosis, though some have even lived for 20 years.

AD has not much to do with the normal aging process, though old age is a risk factor. Young people too are known to suffer from it, but the malady is seen to be more common among those aged 60 and above. So far, no cure has been found for the disease; doctors only try to treat the symptoms to provide some relief. In the absence of a cure, one can only think of preventive measures which could be physical, mental and intellectually-stimulating activities, and active participation in community life.

Alzheimer's Disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German doctor who first identified it in 1906 in the course of an autopsy of a woman to determine what could have caused her “unusual mental illness.” He found “abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers” in the brain which have since come to be seen as signs of AD. In later years, researchers were able to trace the disease to dead nerve cells and disrupted nerve connections in parts of the brain linked to memory and associated mental faculties, as well as lower levels of some chemicals known to facilitate transmission of messages among nerve cells. Experienced doctors can diagnose AD to a great extent through a study of the behavioral patterns of patients, memory, language, counting and problem-solving tests, their orientation, attention span etc. besides carrying out pathological tests of urine, blood and spinal fluid, in addition to brain scans.

What causes these abnormalities in the brain are however not known. Hereditary factors may play a part where people in the younger age group 30 to 60 show signs of a rare form of AD, the genes are suspect. But in the common form of AD which afflicts older people, hereditary factors do not appear to play a part, though one cannot rule out a genetic malfunction or malformation as a result of the environment, diet, lifestyle etc. Other risk factors being seen as conducive to onset of AD are high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and low levels of vitamin folate.