Alzheimer’s is a common, progressive, and degenerative disease. It causes the loss of memory and other cognitive functions. Dementia occurs often with patients sixty-five and older. This is the gradual loss of mental function. People with Alzheimer’s have an abnormal deposit of beta amyloid. A combination of this protein and destroyed nerve cells causes plaque. Tangles of nerve fibers are then formed. The elimination of nerve cell connection damages pathways to the brain. …showed first 75 words of 557 total…

…showed last 75 words of 557 total…of those over eighty have Alzheimer’s disease. · An average person with Alzheimer’s will live eight years after being diagnosed, and as many as twenty years or more · Alzheimer’s disease costs the U.S. at least $100 billion a year. This is so because neither Medicare nor health insurance covers it · Half of all nursing home patients suffer from Alzheimer’s or a dementia · The federal government spent $466 million for Alzheimer’s disease in 2000