Alzheimer's is the most prevalent form of dementia. It is a disease that affects memory and reduces the quality of life of its sufferers. It usually affects people over sixty-five. There are over 4.5 million people in America with Alzheimer's and that number may increase four fold as the baby boomers age.

There is no known cure for Alzheimer's but progress in the area of quality of life has been made, and there is hope that some day drugs currently being researched may bring a cure.

The beginning stages of Alzheimer's starts with general absentmindedness, for example, forgetting recent events or directions. Then it becomes worse until they forget the names of objects they use daily or family names. They forget where they put things or where they placed things for “safe” keeping. They forget what they have just said and repeat stories.

For those affected, conversations are not easy to follow and the right words are difficult to find. In the early stages, they may also find it hard to express what they are feeling and in later stages it will affect their ability to write and read.

Alzheimer patients may develop skills such as dealing with numbers. Abstracting thinking improves but they are disoriented and lose track of time. All surrounding feel unfamiliar to them.

People affected with Alzheimer's will have difficulty with daily problems, like decision making and planning, for example they might start to burn food or have trouble with hygiene.

Their personality may change which is very upsetting to watch. They may become depressed and have mood swings, they might become suspicious, stubborn, withdrawn, aggressive, and even display inappropriate behavior.

One such example was, a well loved and respected great grandmother who had a dramatic change in behavior. She was put in a nursing home and as the disease progressed she became worse. She would use language none of her family heard her use before. She would creep into other patients rooms and leave them undressed. She'd never remember who visited her or who they were when they came. The family put a board in her room and each member who visited would write their name and date so she could see.

But for most people, recognizing a loved one is suffering from Alzheimer's, only occurs when they are in the advanced stages because the personality changes are not usually so sudden and symptoms are gradual.

The usually survival rate is eight years but that depends on the person. Some live less, others can go on for more than fifteen years. No matter how long they live, the responsibility of taking care of the individual is placed on their relatives and they face the difficult decision of choosing whether to take care of the patient at home or place the individual in a facility. It's a hard choice to make and either way to deal with a person in such a condition, takes a lot of patience, love and empathy.