Alzheimer's patients tend to lose weight and muscle tone. Vision is often affected. They become more vulnerable to infection, making them prone to other diseases. There is, as yet, no cure for Alzheimer's disease. That is not to say there is no light on the horizon.
Treatments continue in development.
Drugs designed to interfere with the progression of the disease and alleviate some of the symptoms are available. These drugs, which work by inhibiting the brain's production of acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme implicated in Alzheimer's disease, have been of benefit to some patients for short periods of time, but side effects often prove difficult. Long-term outcomes of drug therapy are not yet known. A further difficulty is the importance of introducing drug therapy early in the disease. Most general practitioners, however, do not diagnose Alzheimer's disease early enough for any treatment to be effective.