About Alzheimer’s Disease
This section provides you with:
- A brief introduction to Alzheimer’s disease
- Links to trusted government resources for Alzheimer’s disease information
What is Alzheimer’s Disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and fatal brain disorder. Alzheimer’s disease destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Memory is often affected early and gradually deteriorates, affecting the ability to perform normal daily activities. The course the disease takes and the time from diagnosis to death varies from person to person. It can be as little as 3 years or it may be as long as 10 years or more.
There are currently about 5 million cases of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States and the risk of developing the disease doubles every 5 years for those over the age of 65. One in ten people over the age of 65 are affected. At this rate, by the year 2050 up to 14 million Americans could be affected.
Learn more by visiting the trusted sources below
ADEAR
The Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center Web site (http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers) will help you find current, comprehensive Alzheimer's disease (AD) information and resources from the National Institute on Aging (NIA)
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
The National Aging Institute's Web site ( http://www.nia.nih.gov ) is an institute of the NIH, a U.S. federal government agency that provides accurate, up-to-date information about all aspect of aging research, information about clinical trials, educational materials and resources about aging for the general public, and information for researchers and health professionals.
MedlinePlus
MedlinePlus directs you to information to help answer health questions. MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. MedlinePlus also contains extensive information about drugs and supplements, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive tutorials, the latest health news, and surgery videos.