Visceral pain is often described as generalized aching or squeezing. It is caused by compression in and around the organs, or by stretching of the abdominal cavity. Sometimes visceral pain may radiate to other areas in the body, making it even harder to pinpoint its exact location.
Data from the largest analysis to date of amyloid plaques showed they can appear 20 or 30 years before dementia symptoms.
The amyloid hypothesis, that the plaques are responsible for the pathology of Alzheimer's disease, is accepted by the majority of researchers but is by no means conclusively established. An alternative hypothesis is that amyloid oligomers rather than plaques are responsible for the disease.