Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. In most people with Alzheimer’s, symptoms first appear in their mid-60s.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-fact-sheet
A Honor Society of Nursing (STTI) answered. Different forms of dementia affect your body differently, but in one way or another they all affect your brain. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer' disease, which causes degeneration of brain tissue and nerve cells. Frontotemporal dementia also causes damage to nerve cells, but only in the frontal and temporal lobes of your brain. Lewy body dementia is caused by masses of protein in your brain known as Lewy bodies, and vascular dementia affects the arteries that move blood from your heart to your brain. Several other factors that ultimately result in damage to your brain cells or nerves may lead to other forms of dementia as well.
https://www.sharecare.com/health/dementia/how-dementia-affect-the-body
While the brain may shrink to some degree in healthy aging, it does not lose neurons in large numbers. In Alzheimer’s disease, however, damage is widespread as many neurons stop functioning, lose connections with other neurons, and die.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/2011-2012-alzheimers-disease-progress-report/primer-alzheimers-disease-and
Alzheimer’s disrupts processes vital to neurons and their networks, including communication, metabolism, and repair. At first, the disease typically destroys neurons and their connections in parts of the brain involved in memory, including the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus. It later affects areas in the cerebral cortex responsible for language, reasoning, and social behavior.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/2011-2012-alzheimers-disease-progress-report/primer-alzheimers-disease-and
Areas of the Brain Affected by Alzheimer's and Other Dementias. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive condition that destroys the connections between cells in the brain. Eventually these cells die, which affects how the brain works. As cells die in the outer layer of the brain-called the cortex-it shrinks, and the spaces in the brain get larger.
http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/areas-of-the-brain-affected-by-alzheimers-and-other-dementias
Many changes take place in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease. Some of these changes can be observed in brain tissue under the microscope after death. The three abnormalities most evident in the brains of people who have died with the disorder are: 1  Amyloid plaques.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/2011-2012-alzheimers-disease-progress-report/primer-alzheimers-disease-and
Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia among older adults. Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—and behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-fact-sheet
The cortex includes the hippocampus, which is an area of the brain that helps new memories form. The damage to the brain eventually causes problems with memory, intelligence, judgment, language, and behavior. Alzheimer's is the most common form of mental decline, or dementia, in older adults. By Healthwise Staff.
http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/areas-of-the-brain-affected-by-alzheimers-and-other-dementias
The first symptoms of Alzheimer's vary from person to person. For many, decline in non-memory aspects of cognition, such as word-finding, vision/spatial issues, and impaired reasoning or judgment, may signal the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-fact-sheet
The development and progression of this late-onset form of the disease are very similar to what is seen in the early-onset form of the disorder. The causes of late-onset Alzheimer’s are not yet known, but they are believed to include a combination of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/2011-2012-alzheimers-disease-progress-report/primer-alzheimers-disease-and
what part of the body does alzheimer's affect
Areas of the Brain Affected by Alzheimer's. The part of the body that Alzheimer's affect is the brain.