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In an average UCLA lecture of 100 people, 13 will develop a disease in their elder years that will slowly degrade their memory, according to statistics from the Alzheimer’s Association.

Of those, some will be diagnosed with advanced forms, which will require them to be supervised for 24 hours a day so they do not forget to eat.

The disease, Alzheimer’s, is one of the leading neurologically degenerative diseases to affect the elderly population.

While significant advancements continue to be made in the treatment of diseases such as cancer and diabetes, developments in the field of Alzheimer’s have staggered.

Though there is research conducted at UCLA in the area of brain imaging that is helping experts learn how to better detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s at an earlier stage, scientists have more barriers to cross before finding permanent treatments.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of disorders characterized by the gradual destruction of brain cells and decline in mental function. Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disorder that gradually affects a person’s memory and ability to learn, make judgments, and carry out daily activities.

Because Alzheimer’s disease attacks a person’s memory, those living with advanced-stage Alzheimer’s often do not even remember family and close friends, and some may require reminders to complete simple tasks such as eating.

Though scientists agree that there is no single cause of Alzheimer’s, there are certain risk factors associated with the disorder.

These risk factors include a family history of Alzheimer’s, serious head traumas, lower education level and old age, said Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center on Aging and professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

Less-educated individuals are more prone to developing Alzheimer’s because it is usually connected with less frequent brain activity.

Brain cells that are not used are more prone to death, and cell death in the brain is associated with Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s disease affects a person’s memory, which has two components: learning and recall.

“The learning aspect has to do with getting information into the memory source, like a file cabinet, whereas recall involves pulling that information out of storage by knowing where it is and retrieving it,” Small said.

As a person ages, there is a breakdown of both components and it takes more time to learn information and retrieve it from the memory, Small added.

“The brain literally shrinks with age, and with this atrophy there is loss of brain cells that communicate the information required for brain function,” Small said.

There are certain biological mechanisms responsible for the deterioration and shrinkage of the brain that researchers agree may be contributors to Alzheimer’s disease. One of the biological processes includes the abnormal buildup of protein deposits in the brain, according to the Alzheimer’s Association Web site.

Abnormal clusters of the beta-amyloid protein, called plaques, build up between nerve cells in the brain, which can cause cell death.

“Regions of the brain required for memory actually die out,” said Alcino Silva, professor of neurobiology, psychiatry and psychology at UCLA.

As Alzheimer’s progresses, plaques spread throughout the brain, severely affecting the mental function of someone suffering from the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association Web site.

The rate of progression varies between individuals, and people usually live with Alzheimer’s an average of eight years, though some people may survive up to 20 years.

“Memory loss is like diabetes or cancer in that it is a pathological state,” Silva said.

There are two basic ways to detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.

The most common way to detect Alzheimer’s is through neuropsychological tests, Silva said.

According to the results of these tests, patients are classified into different stages of the disease.

“There is a pre-Alzheimer’s stage where memory deficits are detected, and then there is a stage where tests show that a patient has the disease,” Silva added.

Another way to detect Alzheimer’s is brain imaging.

Brain imaging allows experts to look at Alzheimer’s disease as patterns in the brain, said Greg M. Cole, professor of medicine and neurology at UCLA and associate director of UCLA’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

“Brain imaging allows us to get a better idea if a person is developing the disease pathology and allows us to study the pattern of changes that may lead to the disease,” Cole said.

“It allows us to see earlier stages of the disease,” he added.

Brain imaging can be done several different ways, including a PET, or positron emission topography, scan and an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging.

If you were to do several scans of the brain, you might begin to see shrinkage of a specific part of the brain over time, and these changes can be linked to Alzheimer’s, Cole said.

“Brain imaging is a promising new way to diagnose the disease, and much of the research on it is being done at UCLA,” Silva said.

Other research in Alzheimer’s disease is working toward creating a vaccine that may help prevent the disease in some people.

“Some individuals may have a higher chance of developing Alzheimer’s due to the increased presence of certain chemicals that cause cell death, and the vaccine that is being developed works against these chemicals, which may help prevent Alzheimer’s from developing,” Silva said.

As for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Cole suggested that older people who think they may have early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or memory loss should get tested early rather than late.

“The sooner someone is tested and diagnosed, the better chance the patient has to seek effective treatment,” he said.

As for younger people, who are less susceptible to Alzheimer’s and other diseases that cause memory loss, Cole advises to reduce risk factors that can cause cardiovascular disease.

“Studies show that risk factors for Alzheimer’s are very closely related to those for cardiovascular disease,” Cole said.

“What’s good for your body is good for your brain,” Silva said.

The risk factors that result in physical decline also result in reduced brain function, including smoking, being overweight and malnutrition, he added.

Silva also stressed the importance of keeping your mind occupied and your brain working.

“As exercise is good for your muscles, learning and exercising your brain is good for your memory.”

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