Now that former president Reagen has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, new breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment have attract even greater attention. The only way that a doctor can diagnose Alzheimer's disease is to look at a piece of brain tissue under the microscope. That's why they have to do lots of tests to rule out other causes of senility before they can make a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Eye doctors usually instil tropicamide eye drops to widen the pupil so they can look inside the eye. However, if they dilute the drops 100 times, they will not dilate the pupils of normal people, but they will dilate the pupils of those who have Alzheimer's disease.
Messages travel from one nerve to another through chemicals called neurotransmitter.
The brains of people who have Alzheimer's disease have very low levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Thus people who have low levels of acetyl choline may be extremely sensitive to its effects. So people who lack acetyl choline will be more likely to have their pupils widen. However, this test may not be specific for Alzheimer's disease as there are many other conditions, such as Down's syndrome, which also lack acetyl choline. There is only one unconfirmed report showing that naproxen and ibuprofen, two drugs used to treat arthritis, slow the development of, or may even prevent, Alzheimer's disease.