Alzheimer Disease is a degenerative disease that destroys vital cells in the brain, resulting in impaired memory, reasoning and changes in mood and behaviour. Alzheimer Disease is not a normal part of aging.

What Is Dementia?

Dementia is a category of diseases. It is a loss of the ability to think, reason, and remember in such a way that interferes with the person's activities of daily living. Alzheimer Disease is the most common form of dementia.

Some Facts

There is no known cause or cure for Alzheimer Disease. The only definite method of diagnosis at the moment is autopsy since Alzheimer Disease is a diagnosis of exclusion. There are treatments that help with the symptoms of Alzheimer Disease and some other forms of dementia.

Canadians Affected:

• An estimated 500,000 Canadians have Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. Over 70,000 of them are under 65 and approximately 50,000 are under the age of 60.
• 1 in 11 Canadians over the age of 65 has Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia.
• It is estimated that 2,178 people in Lambton County, over age 65, have Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia.
• Women make up almost three-quarters of Canadians with Alzheimer's disease.
• In just 5 years, as much as 50% more Canadians and their families could be facing Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia.
• Within a generation, the number of Canadians with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia will more than double, ranging between 1 and 1.3 million people. 

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• 36% of Canadians know someone with Alzheimer's disease. 
• 17% of Canadians have someone with Alzheimer's disease in their immediate family. 
• Alzheimer's disease is the second most feared disease for Canadians as they age.

Costs:

• Family caregivers are the invisible and hidden backbone of the health and long-term care system in Canada contributing over $5 billion dollars of unpaid care.

Caregiving:

• Over 70% of informal caregivers are women, mostly wives and daughters
• 30% of informal caregivers in the community are employed
• Work disturbances due to caregiving responsibilities were twice as frequent among employed, informal dementia caregivers than among caregivers of non-demented seniors
• Depressive symptoms were nearly twice as common in dementia caregivers living in the community as caregivers of non-demented seniors
• People with dementia have fewer friends and relatives to count on beyond the primary caregiver than do seniors without dementia

There are two forms of Alzheimer Disease:

• Familial Autosomal Dominant (FAD) which can strike at any age.
• Sporadic, which usually occurs after the age of 65.

Although there are over 70 recognized causes for dementia, by far the most common is Alzheimer Disease which accounts for about 60% of all cases. Artherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) of the brain vessels, leading to multiple strokes, is the next most common cause, and accounts for 15-20% of all cases. The remaining 5-10% result from a variety of degenerative diseases of the brain. Some are listed below:

• AIDS (in later stages)
• Hydrocephalus
• Pick's Disease
• Frontotemporal Dementia
• Parkinson's Disease (in later stages)
• Lewy Body Dementia
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (the human form of mad cow disease)
• Vascular Dementia