Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Research Review PaperPart 1: IntroductionThe topic I am writing about is loss of memory or more specifically: dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Modern medicine has improved significantly over the past decade and the average human lifespan has increased. However, as humans live longer, there is also an increased susceptibility to chronic diseases as opposed to infectious diseases. Alzheimer's disease is a slow-progressing, chronic disease as it is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. This topic is important to me because I have had many encounters with dementia patients and have seen the impact it has on many families and friends. Additionally, the brain is arguably the most important organ in our body; therefore, diseases that affect the brain usually cause irreversible damage. Dementia encompasses a broad category of brain diseases that cause long-term loss of the ability to think and reason to the extent that it is severe enough to affect a person's basic functions. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for up to eighty percent of dementia cases. There are many risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, but the greatest known risk factor is age. The majority of people with this disease are 65 years and older, but there are also cases where it appears early. Like all chronic illnesses, the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease gradually worsen over the years. The average survival rate for people with Alzheimer's disease is eight years and unfortunately, there is currently no cure for this disease. However, there are treatments that can reduce the severity of symptoms and increase the quality of life of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's... middle of article...... between healthy older adults and Alzheimer's patients. Thaut, MH, Peterson, DA and McIntosh, GC (2005). Temporal entrainment of cognitive functions: musical mnemonics induce brain plasticity and oscillatory synchronization in the neural networks underlying memory.Annals of the New YorkAcademy of Sciences,1060, 243–254Teng EL, Hasegawa K, Homma A, Imai Y, Larson E, Graves A, Sugimoto K, Yamaguchi T, Sasaki H, Chiu D Int Psychogeriatr. Spring 1994; 6(1):45-58; discussion 62. The Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI): a practical test for cross-cultural epidemiological studies of dementia. Wilson RS, Barnes LL, Mendes de Leon CF, Aggarwal NT, Schneider JS, Bach J, Pilat J, Beckett LA, Arnold SE, Evans DA, Bennett DA Depressive symptoms, cognitive decline, and risk of AD in older adults. Neurology. august 2002 13; 59(3):364-70.