Alzheimer’s disease

dementia; It means the deterioration of previously normal mental functions to a level that affects daily life activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common dementia disease. The most important risk factor for the disease is age, the risk increases with age. 8 out of 100 people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease. Today, people aged 65 and over constitute the fastest growing age group all over the world (especially in developed countries). It is thought that there are around 300,000 Alzheimer’s patients in Turkey. The most important symptom of the disease is forgetfulness. It shows a slow progressive course and over time, other areas of the mind are also affected, and symptoms such as introversion, abandonment of hobbies, talking about things that are not, seeing things that are not, not being able to find the ways they know well, getting lost, messing up the rooms in the house are added. It is important to distinguish between benign old age forgetfulness and forgetfulness, which is a symptom of disease. This distinction is made by combining the patient’s examination, information obtained from the patient’s relatives, neuropsychological evaluation evaluating brain functions, and, if necessary, other auxiliary tests (MR, CT, blood tests). Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the death of brain cells earlier than programmed, the cause of which has not yet been fully elucidated. With age, every person has brain cell death, but in Alzheimer’s disease, this process happens very quickly and early. With cell death, the brain gradually shrinks. Alzheimer’s disease is not a contagious disease, it is not a cancer disease. Very rarely hereditary forms are also present (approximately 5 out of 100 patients). There are also some risk factors identified for Alzheimer’s disease; The most important is age. The risk increases with age. Many studies have shown that cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and a history of stroke significantly increase the risk of AD. High blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, smoking, depression, being mentally inactive, physical inactivity, malnutrition or malnutrition, obesity and low education have also been identified as other risk factors. The average duration of the disease is 8 years. On the other hand, while the disease progresses very slowly in some patients, it progresses somewhat faster in others.