• Affects more individuals over the age of 65 years
• The number of people diagnosed with AZ is doubling every five years
• At age 60 the incidence rate is 1%
• At age 85 the incidence rate rises to over 40%
• Alzheimer’s Dementia is known as the end stage of any type of brain insult or trauma
• It can be genetic with a family history and identifying APOE-4 allele marker, SORL1 gene, TAU factor, cellular changes
• Risk factor of poor sleep and insomnia
• Some studies found the presence of mood change, depression and social withdrawal in more than 70% of those diagnosed with AZ for an average of two years
• Mood changes, depression, social withdrawal, apathy has been found to occur in 70 percent of diagnosed AZ patients
• A common issue with AZ is a lack of awareness or recognition of any cognitive problems.
• Psychosis and agitation tend to be seen in the later stages of AZ.

Alzheimer’s Dementia is associated with:

• Downs’ Syndrome
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Females
• Lower education and occupation
• Hypertension in mid-life
• Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Fragile personality/avoidant or reclusive personality
• Toxicity, free radicals, medication interactions, brain infections
• Chronic stress and inflammatory process
• Lowered immune system response
• HPA axis, problems with regulator
• High caloric diet (increased life span with caloric restriction)
• Exposure to general anesthesia
• Poor cardiovascular health

Risk of Alzheimer’s Dementia increases with:

• Age, Obesity, Dietary fat, Diabetes Type I and II, Traumatic Brain Injury
• Elevated homocysteine, depleted Vitamin B12
• Sleep fragmentation, decreased REM sleep
• Individuals married longer who lose a spouse
• Early life stress

Thinking problems typically seen when there is Alzheimer’s Dementia:

• Memory loss is immediately severe in the beginning stages
• Misplaced objects- cannot find anything or remember where it normally can be found
• No recall of conversations
• An inability to learn anything new
• Memory of the past remains intact
• Visuospatial functioning is immediately affected resulting in the tendency to become lost in familiar places such as the grocery store
• Route finding problem, cannot re-trace one’s steps, even in the home, all of a sudden everything looks different
• Forgetting faces and names of people known for years, including immediate family
• Unable to learn any new task such as operating a coffee pot that involves a procedure and use of memory
• Continual loss of the right word to express a thought or to complete a sentence in conversation