Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. It is a serious disease, with no known cure, that worsens as it progresses, leading to death as a result of the gradual loss of brain cells. It is a very rare disease in young patients, more likely in middle aged people and very common in older patients.
There are over 24 million people with Alzheimer's in the world, which makes it the most common neurodegenerative disease. Despite learning more and more about this kind of dementia, we still don't know what triggers it. No effective treatment has been discovered yet.
As the time goes by, dementia is becoming one of the biggest health problems in an ever aging population. When a person is 65 the possibility of suffering dementia doubles and it goes on multiplying as the years pass. Moreover, it is estimated that more than 30% of patients older than 85 suffer dementia, of which a large proportion are Alzheimer's.