Alzheimer’s disease (or Alzheimer’s) is a brain disorder which was named for German doctor Alois Alzheimer, who described it in 1906. Since then, scientists have learned a great amount about Alzheimer’s disease in the century since Dr Alzheimer first drew attention to it.

Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing issues with memory, thinking and behavior serious enough to affect work, lifetime hobbies or social life. Today it’s the sixth-leading reason for death in the US. Is the commonest form of dementia, a general term for the loss of memory and other intellectual abilities significant enough to mess with daily existence.

Other kinds of dementia include vascular dementia, mixed dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia. But treatments for symptoms, mixed with the right services and support, can make life better for the millions of Americans existing with Alzheimer’s. There’s a skyrocketing worldwide effort under way to find better paths to treat the disease, delay its onset, or forestall it from developing.

Like the rest of our bodies, our brains change as we get older. However, significant memory loss, confusion and other big changes in the way our minds work are not an ordinary part of aging.

Still others tell our muscles when to move. In Alzheimer’s disease, as in other sorts of dementia, enlarging numbers of brain cells deteriorate and die.