It could happen to anyone. You have a new neighbour, whose name is on the tip of your tongue, yet you can’t quite remember what it is. You knew exactly where you put your keys a few hours ago, but now you can’t seem to recall quite where that was. Maybe you took a wrong turning, although you were sure you could remember the way to your friend’s house.

Everyone forgets things at some point in their life. It’s only natural not to remember every word of the lecture you’d been given before leaving the house, especially if you weren’t really listening.

But what if you started forgetting the entire speech that you’d tried not to listen to? What if you forgot that you’d been told anything at all? Although it may seem that this is just natural, memory loss and the effects that come along with it has a name- Alzheimer’s disease.

This is a form of Dementia; a syndrome that affects memory, judgement, thinking, language and understanding, and occurs in 1.4% of men and 1.5% of women aged between 65 and 69. There are four different types of Dementia, but Alzheimer’s is the most common. As it is a progressive condition, the symptoms get steadily worse, meaning that memory loss isn’t the only effect of Alzheimer’s.

Luckily, this isn’t likely to happen until much later in your life. Luckier still, it doesn’t happen to everyone, as only one in 20 people over the age of 65 are suspected to have Alzheimer’s or some form of Dementia. However, unluckily, there is no cure for Dementia or Alzheimer’s, meaning that people who suffer from it can do little about their condition as it steadily worsens.

There are 3 different stages to Alzheimer’s: Mild; where symptoms include confusion, poor memory, mood swings and problems with speech, Moderate; where the disease can cause hallucinations, delusions and disturbed sleep, and problems with speech and language, amongst other things. Finally, Severe; which causes symptoms such as difficulty swallowing, trouble moving, loss of appetite and severe or complete loss of memory.

Although there is no cure, medication may be prescribed which can help the sufferer, such as donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine, all of which can treat the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Eventually, though, they will become less and less effective.

So a cure is needed, and as our population ages, meaning more and more people are affected, time is of the essence. With all the money going into research for other diseases, surely the patients of Alzheimer’s can be helped? Surely there is some way that money can be put towards research for this condition?

What do you think? Should the government fund research for this disease, or should they keep spending money on other things? Which would benefit the most people? What are your thoughts?