What do plaques and tangles do?

What do plaques and tangles do?

Gus Alva (Medical Director, ATP Clinical Research) gives expert video advice on: What is "Alzheimer's disease"?; How can I identify the first stage of Alzheimer's disease?; What happens to the brain of an Alzheimer's patient? and more...

As a result of the plaques and tangles, there's literally a choking off process that occurs with the tissue of the brain. If it's being choked off, you don't have the same type of circulation or, again, the opportunity for growth and maintenance in that brain tissue. As a consequence of that, there's a dying off of different areas of the brain. Problem starts out in the basal forebrain, deep in the temporal region, spreads over to the bi-temporal parietal areas and then all of a sudden spreads over to the frontal lobe.