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Isearch background by Amanda Hamblen

• Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906. Scientists have learned a great deal about Alzheimer’s disease in the century since Dr. Alzheimer first drew attention to it. Today we know that Alzheimer’sIs a progressive and fatal brain disease. As many as 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer's destroys brain cells, causing memory loss and problems with thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life. Alzheimer’s gets worse over time, and it is fatal. Today it is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States. Learn more: Warning Signs and Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Other types of dementia include vascular dementia, mixed dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia
• Has no current cure. But treatments for symptoms, combined with the right services and support, can make life better for the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer’s. There is an accelerating worldwide effort under way to find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, or prevent it from developing.
About ten years ago, my family received the news that my grandfather Henry had moderate Alzheimer’s disease. He was told to start taking some new medications and the doctor wrote scripts out to him and sent my grandparents home with devasting news. Our whole family was affected by the sad news. I remember when I got the call from grandmother about what the doctor had to say. It felt like I was punched in the gut by a boxer. I couldn’t breathe for a min or so. Then I started crying hysterically. I took it real hard in the beginning. Lately the disease is winning because he is getting worse. I called them to check on how everything was. I sent them a picture of Geromy and I that I had made on the computer with a new program I have. I said thank you for my birthday card they had sent me, my grandmother Helen said that grandpa didn’t recognize he either Geromy or Me in the photo. I was instantly hit with severe sadness and took an emotional dive. It’s very hard for me to face reality sometimes. I do block certain things out but I couldn’t do it this time. It took a few days until I went back to semi-normal emotions.