Re: Why does Alzheimer's disease happen when you're old.

Actually, we are not sure that Alzheimer’s disease does “happen” only when you are old. Let me explain what I mean.

Alzheimer’s disease symptoms, most commonly memory loss, usually become evident when a person reaches advancing age (around age 70). However, this does not mean that Alzheimer’s disease begins at this age. By the time symptoms appear, a large number of the brain’s neurons are already dead or are dying from the disease, resulting in memory impairment. Some Alzheimer’s disease researchers hypothesize that the disease process begins much earlier, perhaps when a person is in their 20s, 30s or 40s. The disease process may accelerate as the person ages due to the brain’s decreasing ability to defend itself against insults. For example, neurons may be less capable of protecting themselves against free radicals and inflammation

Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to detect Alzheimer’s disease when it first begins. In fact, it is difficult to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in an elderly person with memory loss and other symptoms. This is because there are many other causes of memory loss that make distinguishing Alzheimer’s disease difficult. Currently, a solid diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can only be made post- mortem.

We are learning many things about the causes of Alzheimer’s disease but have yet to come up with a unifying theory to explain the disease. Many things appear to go wrong in the brain during this disease like inflammation, free radicals and an increase in a protein called the beta amyloid protein.

Most of the research into the causes of Alzheimer’s disease focus on this beta amyloid protein and the role it may play in the disease. Much of our research into this disease raises more questions than answers. Why does one person get the disease while another is spared? Some notable information is the discovery of several genes that may make a person vulnerable to the disease. The functions of these genes are being explored and this information should provide more clues as to how neurons die in Alzheimer’s disease.