Alzheimers disease is a disease of the brain and not a mental illness. It is a medical condition which as such, responds to medication and non-medicated approaches to relieving the symptoms and even stalling the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimers disease disease can act differently in different patients. Some experience a slow progression of the disease and others may watch as their loved ones goes rapidly through the stages of the disease, seemingly changing right before their eyes.

The same treatments for Alzheimers disease may not always have the same result or work for the same amount of time for different people.

Often in the very early stages of the disease a person will say that they have senility, or that “old age is setting in”. The truth is that Alzheimer’s is not a normal state of aging. It is a disease that although it occurs more often in those who are older than 80 years of age the typical onset of early Alzheimers disease is age 65, which at today’s standards is not all that old. Rarely someone under 65 will develop early stage Alzheimer’s.

To make life easier for the Alzheimer’s disease patient in the early or middle stages of the disease break up tasks into smaller steps so that the entire task will not seem quite as overwhelming to them.

There are several medications and approaches to treating Alzheimer’s disease that may be discussed when you are a loved one is facing the prognosis of Alzheimer’s disease. One thing you will be told is that there is no cure for the disease currently.