ns not well understood, these plaques and tangles take over healthy brain tissue, which devastates the areas of the brain associated with intellectual function. (Goldmann 6)
             There are a number of behaviors which may signal that a person might be in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease. Here is a list of warning signs: (1) difficulty with familiar tasks, (2) slipping job performance, (3) language difficulties, (4) confusion of place and time, (5) lack of judgment, (6) problems in abstract thinking, (7) misplacing objects, (8) mood fluctuations, (9) changes in personality, and (10) lack of initiative. (Cutler and Sramek 14)
             The first signs of Alzheimer's disease include difficulty in remembering recent events and performing familiar everyday tasks. As the disease progresses, the affected person may experience confusion, personality and behavior changes, impaired judgment, and difficulty finding words, finishing thoughts, or following directions. (Cutler and Sramek 16) In the early and middle stages of AD, people with the illness may be painfully aware of their intellectual failings and what is yet to come. These changes occur at widely varying speeds in different people, and not all changes occur in everyone, but the outcome is always the same. Eventually, people with Alzheimer's disease completely lose the ability to care for themselves and must be confined to bed with constant care. In the latest stages of disease the brain can no longer regulate body functions, and victims die of malnutrition, dehydration, infection, heart failure, or other complications. Alzheimer's disease progresses slowly, taking between three to eighteen years to advance from the earliest symptoms to death; the average duration of the disease is eight years. (Goldmann 1) Unfortunately, science has not yet found a cure.
             Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who discovered Alzheimer's disease, was a gifted German scientist who was...