This disease has gained lot of consideration and lime light after Ronald Reagon the former US president was found to be affected with it. Mother Nature has blessed mankind amongst all the entities on the earth with an extraordinary quality of logical and rational thinking. The storehouse of immense knowledge, 'BRAIN' is the source of this exceptional attribute. Unfortunately, the entire system of an individual becomes handicapped as the same brain starts deteriorating. The major culprit who is involved in the deterioration of brain is Alzheimer's disease (AD). Alzheimer's disease is a devastating disease of brain that robs the afflicted individual of intelligence, memory and eventually life.
     Senile Dementia is an umbrella term for several symptoms related to a decline in thinking skills and progressive deterioration of brain performance. Common symptoms include a Gradual Loss of Memory, Problems with Reasoning or Judgment, Disorientation, Difficulty in Learning, Loss of Language Skills, etc. People with dementia also experience changes in their personalities and behavioral problems. The cumulative effect of all these changes becomes distressing both to the individual and their families. It should be stressed that Alzheimer's disease knows no social, economic, ethnic or geographical boundaries; eventually those affected are unable to care for themselves and need help with all aspects of daily life. The magnitude of this disease is huge, there are estimated to be 17-25 million people worldwide with Alzheimer's disease.What happens to brain in Alzheimer' disease?
     Alzheimer's disease is characterized by progressive death of brain cells. This results from two abnormal structures in the brain: Amyloid plaques which are clumps of protein fragments that accumulate outside of cells and Neurofibrillary tangles which are clumps of altered proteins inside cells.
Other factors:
     Many diverse medical theories, including the biochemistry of acetylcholine and neurotransmitters, inflammation, oxidative stress and free radicals, and homocystine, nutritional and vitamin deficiencies, as probable causes of Alzheimer's disease has been put forth. A wide array of risk factors for Alzheimer's include, Disorders of Blood Circulation, Hormonal Imbalance, Head Injury, Emotional Stress, Aalcoholism, Metabolic Defects, Nutritional Deficiencies, and even some Infections.
Clinical presentations of Alzheimer's :
     Declining memory is the most common early symptom of Alzheimer's. Some change in memory is normal as we grow older, but the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are more than simple lapses in memory. People with Alzheimer's experience difficulties communicating, learning, thinking, and reasoning - problems severe enough to have an impact on an individual's work, social activities, and family life.
     While it's normal to forget appointments, names, or telephone numbers, once in a while, those with Alzheimer's will forget such things more often and not remember them later. In addition, People with ordinary forgetfulness can still remember other facts associated with the thing they have forgotten. For example they may briefly forget their next-door neighbor's name but they still know the person they are talking to is their next-door neighbor. A person with dementia will not only forget their neighbor's name but also the context.
     Individuals with AD begin to misplace everyday items, such as the car keys or spectacles, and become disoriented and get lost in familiar surroundings (such as when driving on well-known streets). With Alzheimer individual find difficult to perform even familiar tasks and may forget the steps for preparing a meal, using a household appliance, or in what order to put clothes on.
     A person with Alzheimer's disease often forgets simple words or substitutes unusual words, making his or her speech or writing hard to understand. Individuals with Alzheimer's often show poor judgment about money, and mathematics.
People's personalities ordinarily change somewhat with age. But a person with Alzheimer's disease can change a lot, becoming extremely confused, suspicious, fearful, or dependent on a family member. An Alzheimer's may become unusually emotional and experience rapid mood swings for no apparent reason. Alternatively a person with Alzheimer's may show less emotion than was usual previously. In addition, they may experience delusions (believing in a reality that does not exist), and hallucinations (seeing things that do not exist).
     In the terminal phase, Alzheimer patient enters in a world where he can recognize nothing¡­ neither family members and friends, nor himself.
How can it be diagnosed ?
     Though there is no one diagnostic test that can detect if a person has Alzheimer's disease, but the process involves several kinds of tests and may take more than one day to complete the evaluation. Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is an important step in getting appropriate treatment, care, and support services. Evaluations may include the following steps:
- A medical history, which collects information about current mental or physical conditions, prescription and nonprescription drug use, and family health history
- A mental status evaluation to assess sense of time and place; ability to remember, understand, and communicate; and ability to do simple math problems
- A physical examination, which includes the evaluation of the person's nutritional status, blood pressure, sensations, balance, and other functions of nervous system
- Investigations like a brain scan like CT and MRI to detect other causes of dementia such as stroke and laboratory tests, such as blood and urine tests, for checking various components of blood, hormones, enzymes, infections, etc.
Treatment:
     Although Alzheimer's disease has always puzzled physicians of all walks, interestingly homoeopathy system offers reasonably positive treatment if not cure.
When we discuss the role of medicine for certain diseases, we probably do not talk of the 'cure' in real sense, but more of 'control' and 'relief'. AD is one such condition, where homoeopathy has following role to play:
- To control the disease process whereby further deterioration of the brain damage is helped to certain extent
- To improve to an extent some of the symptoms: communication, failing memory,
anxiety, restlessness, etc.
Many of the problems associated with dementia such as restlessness, depression, and agitation can be treated effectively and gently with homoeopathy. It may also be possible, especially in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, to improve someone's memory with homoeopathic medication. Timely administered homoeopathy medicines can prevent further progress of disease.
Homoeopathy believes in treating the patient who is diseased and not merely diseased parts of the patients. This holistic approach goes in a long way in the management of various chronic and deep-seated diseases, including Alzheimer's.
Homoeopathy undertakes study of each Alzheimer's as separate entity and does in-depth evaluation of the disease as well as patient as person. The study also involves deep evaluation of the mind and emotions. After appreciating the patients in his totality, a suitable medicine called as 'constitutional medicine' is selected for the patient. The medication based on such foundation brings deeper level healing process for the sufferers of chronic diseases.
It should be noted that there is no single specific remedy for all the cases of Alzheimer's. The exact treatment is determined only on in-depth evaluation of individual case.

Suggested Investigations : Routine Blood Test, CT Scan Brain, MRI Brain