Medical Update - Alzheimer’s Disease

Although there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s, new treatments are on the horizon as a result of accelerating insight into the biology of the disease. Research has also shown that effective care and support can improve quality of life for inpiduals and their caregivers over the course of the disease from diagnosis to the end of life.

Dementia


Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia, a group of conditions that all gradually destroy brain cells and lead to progressive decline in mental function. Vascular dementia, another common form, results from reduced blood flow to the brain’s nerve cells. In some cases, Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia can occur together in a condition called "mixed dementia." Other causes of dementia include frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Parkinson’s disease. For more information on related disorders, see Related Disorders.