It affects an estimated 4 million American adults. AD usually has a gradual onset.
Problems remembering recent events and difficulty performing familiar tasks are early symptoms.
The Alzheimer patient also may experience confusion, personality change, behavior change, impaired judgment, and difficulty finding words, finishing thoughts or following directions. How quickly these changes occur will very form person to person, but the disease eventually leaves its victims totally unable to care for themselves. An absolute diagnosis can only be made upon examination of brain tissue, usually at autopsy. On microscopic examination at autopsy, AD brains show senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in those areas of the brain responsible for memory and intellectual functions. Alzheimer patients have been found to lack the brain chemical acetylcholine, which is involved in the processing of memory by the brain.