What is "Alzheimer's disease"?

What is "Alzheimer's disease"?

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...

Alzheimer's disease happens to be the most common type of dementia. Dementia basically means a syndromal state in which people have a problem with their short term memory. Associated with that, alzheimer's disease sufferers typically also have some problems with neurological processing. For example, finding the right word to use in conversations, maybe having problems with their ability to do things with their hands, maybe getting lost, or lacking the ability to plan or organize things. Typically when the individual develops a dementia, there's going to be problems with their ability to do their job or to socialize the way that they did before, and these things can readily be noticed by other people. We have ways of diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, which like I said, happens to be the most common dementia that we encounter out there.