Font Size  Alzheimer's Disease (cont.)  Health Tools
Alzheimer's Disease: Should I Take Medicines?   Alzheimer's
disease causes loss of brain cells in areas of the brain. Some
of the deterioration may be related to a loss of chemical
messengers in the brain, called neurotransmitters, that allow
nerve cells in the brain to communicate properly.  People with
Alzheimer's disease have two things in the brain that are not
normal: amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.    •
Amyloid plaques are clumps of a protein called beta amyloid.
This plaque builds up around the cells in the brain that
communicate with each other.   • Neurofibrillary tangles are
made from a protein called tau. Normally, the tau protein helps
cells communicate in the brain. In Alzheimer's disease, the tau
protein twists and tangles. The tangles clump together, and some
nerve cells die, which makes communication in the brain much
harder.   • As brain cells die, it shrinks. The damage to the
brain eventually causes problems with memory, in