What is Alzheimer's disease?

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common forms of dementia. People often ask, what’s the difference between dementia and Alzheimer's disease? Dementia is really the umbrella term for lots of different problems that people have with memory and thinking but Alzheimer's is the most common. It’s characterized by memory loss almost always and then other functions of thinking like word finding, ability to do calculations, ability to remember how to do procedural things like loading the dishwasher and eventually goes on to really problems doing almost anything. It really affects daily life in a major way and also many other members of the family, spouses, children in particular. A very common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease.