In 1906 the German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer proposed the theory that the rapidly worsening memory loss he observed in patients was a disease. What many of his colleagues did not believe has now become bitter truth.

Back then Dr. Alzheimer found clumped and aggregated proteins in the brain of a deceased female patient. These protein deposits kill the surrounding nerve cells. The many billions of connections between the nerve cells that have stored all memories during a lifetime become irretrievably lost.

Meanwhile more than 18 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease. About 1 to 2% of the 60- to 70-year-olds are affected. Almost one in five of the over eighty-year-olds suffer from this creeping degeneration of the brain.