Understanding Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease comes with a lot of terminology: dementia, amyloid, tau, biomarkers, PET scans, blood tests, genetics, treatments and more. This path builds those ideas one at a time so the later concepts make sense.

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Stop 1

What is dementia?

Why dementia is like “dog” — and Alzheimer’s is a Golden Retriever

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What is Alzheimer's disease?

The most common cause of dementia

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What happens in the Alzheimer's brain?

The biological changes that define Alzheimer's

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What is amyloid?

A key protein in Alzheimer's biology

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What is tau?

The other hallmark protein in Alzheimer's

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How Alzheimer's changes the brain over time

The progression from biology to symptoms

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Symptoms and stages

What changes and when

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How Alzheimer's is evaluated

How clinicians assess cognition

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What is a biomarker?

Measuring what's happening in the brain

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Blood biomarkers

A new frontier in detection

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Amyloid PET and CSF biomarkers

Imaging and spinal fluid testing

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Genetics and APOE

Inherited risk factors

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How Alzheimer's is treated

Current approaches and limitations

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What researchers are studying

Where the science is heading