Of all the different types of dementia that affect the elderly, it is Alzheimer's disease which causes the most concern; other types of dementia include Parkinson's disease and Huntingdon's - which isn't entirely restricted to the elderly. If you spent time with a person with Alzheimer's disease, you will see a gradual decay in their ability to remember.

The problem in the past has been the accuracy of diagnosis which has gradually improved and is now up to 94 percent accurate. Discovered in 1906 by German physician Alois Alzheimer, the world's focus on this disease is only about 30 years old; even though it has been scientifically studied for many years, knowledge surrounding this disease is minimal.

Studies show that your greatest risk of acquiring Alzheimer's is advancing age. Unfortunately, the person experiencing the early symptoms of Alzheimer's will know something is wrong but won't admit it to others or even to themselves; to make matters worse, this situation creates a delay in the person and family learning what is wrong. Given this it there is often a delay in understanding or taking an appropriate course of action.

General measures for treatment of Alzheimer's disease are the same as for all dementias. Stalling the progression and possibly improving the condition is about the best that can currently be achieved with drugs but no definitive treatment has yet been discovered. At the moment, three drugs are used routinely to treat sufferers of Alzheimer's, all of which have been approved by the FDA - Donepezil, Tacrine, and Rivastigmine; improvements have shown to help the average sufferer's cognitive abilities by up to six months.

A new drug, Memantine is helping to slow down the mental decline during the later phases and is similar to the anti-influenza treatment Amantadine; patients with mild to severe Alzheimer's who are already receiving Donepezil are now given Memantine as an alternative. Memantine is the first medicine to show such positive results with sufferers with few problems associated with its use; as 80 percent of the drug is passed in urine unchanged there is very little left to cause any harm.

Because people are living longer Alzheimer's disease has become a serious health problem that governments must face; in the United States it is fourth in the list of fatal diseases. There is also an economic aspect of caring for patients to consider, something that will affect governments everywhere; with a current figure for medical treatment and care at 40 billion dollars a year.

The National Institute on Aging spends half of its annual funding on research into this age related disease; currently there are over 300 different compounds at various stages of development for its treatment. This would make Alzheimer's , the cost, care and treatment of which, a major problem.

To help you reduce the chance of contracting dementia, it's important to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Although not full proven yet, researchers studying Alzheimer's patients have noticed that those who stay healthy and cheerful have slowed down the rate of decline. At the moment, the disease is still primarily affecting the aged; nevertheless, there have been occasional incidences of people contracting it before the age of 60.