Definition of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer Disease Discovered in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, it's a brain disorder disease called "neurodegenerative", that is to say, it leads to a progressive loss of neurons.

alois alzheimer

The cognitive impairment

  

These neurons, which are used to program a number of actions, disappearing cause cognitive impairment: memory, language, reasoning, etc. The extension of brain damage due to other disorders that gradually reduce the autonomy of the individual.

Alzheimer's disease appears more often in the elderly, but it is not a normal part of aging.

Alzheimer's disease, memory disease?

Is often associated with memory loss in Alzheimer's disease because they are actually the neurons located in the region of the hippo campus, the seat of memory, who first met.

Unfortunately, little by little other brain areas are affected and lead to the gradual disappearance of orientation capacity over time and space, recognition of objects and people, the use of language, mental, replication.

From a scientific point of view

Alzheimer's disease is due to a detailed disease process which leads to the development of two types of lesions in the central nervous system:

1.  neurofibrillary tangles, it comes to the appearance, in the neurons of abnormal tau protein;
2.  amyloid plaques or "senile plaques" in the case of deposit outside neurons, beta amyloid protein. 

These lesions progressively invade the different areas of the cerebral cortex. They are long silent and causes visible manifestations as they multiply and affect areas important for brain function.