What is Alzheimer’s disease?

Alzheimer’s dementia: the most common form of dementia disease

Alzheimer’s dementia is a neurodegenerative disease manifested by the progressive loss of nerve cells and tissue in the brain. It is the most common form of dementia in older people, accounting for around 65% of cases, but increasingly also in younger people.

The human brain consists of about 100 billion nerve cells that communicate with each other through trillions of synapses. In Alzheimer’s disease, there is a gradual breakdown of this system, resulting in clinical symptoms such as memory loss, behavioral changes, cognitive impairment, orientation problems and word-finding difficulties.

The causes of Alzheimer’s disease are not yet fully understood. It is thought that, among other things, harmful protein molecules that form outside the nerve cells and disrupt their function play a role. One of these molecules is beta-amyloid, which accumulates in the brain and forms plaques. These plaques disrupt blood circulation and lead to a lack of oxygen and energy in the brain.

Tau proteins, which are responsible for supplying nutrients to the cells, can also be altered and lead to the accumulation of tau fibrils, which are deposited in the cells and lead to their destruction.

Reduce symptoms and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease develops insidiously and progressively over many years. There is currently no cure for the disease, but there are various approaches to treating the symptoms, including medication and non-drug therapies such as cognitive rehabilitation and occupational therapy.

In addition, there are novel therapeutic approaches from the field of brain stimulation, such as transcranial pulse stimulation. In addition to these physical approaches, pharmacological research is currently focusing on the identification of biomarkers that could enable increasingly better early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as on the development of new drugs that target the underlying mechanisms of the disease.

As Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic disease, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment can help improve the quality of life of affected people and maintain their independence as the disease progresses.