Alzheimer 's Disease And Its Effects

Alzheimer 's disease (AD) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain from which there is no recovery. There are three brain abnormalities that are the hallmarks of the Alzheimer’s disease is initially caused by plaques buildup in the brain’s neurons as illustrated in figure 1. The support structure that allows the flow of the nutrients through the neurons gets damaged and ultimately there is loss of connection among the neurons and they die off (National Institute of Health, 2015). This causes the brain tissue to shrinks, which is called atrophies. All this ultimately lead the victim of this disease to face difficulties in governing emotions, recognize errors and patterns, coordinate movement, and remember. Ultimately, a person with AD loses all memory and mental functioning.

Alzheimer’s is a disease in the brain that affects a person’s memory, thinking, and behavior. It is the most common form of dementia and is common in adults older than 65. More than five million Americans are being affected by Alzheimer’s at this moment. Alzheimer’s comes in three stages; early, middle, and advanced. The disease is caused by the shrinking of the brain due to many risk factors and genetics.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease of the brain wherein a person afflicted with the said disease would have compromised cognition and memory skills, and eventual deterioration of the skill to execute uncomplicated activities. According to experts, most individuals do not manifest the symptoms for Alzheimer’s disease until they are over the age of 60. This disease affects more than 5.1 million Americans.

When looking into the future and thinking about what your life will be 10, 20, even 30 years down the road I would guess the majority of us picture our lives as carefree and exciting, in perfect health and rich. Maybe you have 5 kids, the perfect job and a cookie-cutter husband. Or maybe you travel the world, have a rockin’ body and work for the CIA. Unfortunately that isn’t the outcome for everyone. There are those who will develop Alzheimer 's dementia.

Last year my maternal Aunt Kate passed away. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) about eight years earlier. My maternal grandmother also had been diagnosed with dementia before her death. Later this month I will accompany my 77-year-old mother to her neurologist appointment. While she has not been diagnosed with AD or dementia, she has been prescribed Donepezil (Aricept), one of the newer drugs that are thought to reduce the decline in memory in patients that have or might be developing dementia. I welcome opportunities to learn more about AD and the effects on the brain. The Alzheimer’s Association website, ALZ.org, is filled with a wealth of this information. Especially interesting was “Inside the Brain: An Interactive Tour.” I learned about changes the normal brain experiences from early, mild to moderate and severe stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

The only treatment known now is medication. There are 4 approved medications, Galantamine, Donepezil, Memantine, and Rivastigmine Scientists are working to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and more treatments. It would be nice to have a treatment that doesn’t just mask the symptoms.

Relevancy Material: The information I will give you will help you notice the signs and symptoms of an Alzheimer’s patient.

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes problems with your memory and behavior. Dementia is a term for the severe loss of mental ability that it interferes with your daily life. This is caused by damage to the brain cells. Alzheimer 's disease is the most common type of dementia and is characterized by gradual declines mental abilities (Journal of Clinical & Diagnostic Research, 2016). The disease slowly attacks nerve cells in all parts of the brain and some surrounding structures, that impairs a person 's abilities to govern emotions, recognize errors and patterns, coordinate movement, and remember. As time goes on, they start to have trouble focusing, having dramatic mood swings, or even have trouble communicating. The symptoms start out slow then eventually get worse over time. These symptoms end up interfering with daily tasks. This disease is not a normal part of aging but the vast majority of people who have it are 65 years of age or older. Although this is the vast majority, up to five percent of the people that have it are between the ages of 40-50 (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that kills memories and other important mental functions (Mayo Clinic, 2015).

Alzheimer’s Disease accounts for sixty to seventy percent of dementia cases. The disease starts slowly and gets worse over time. The most common symptoms are short term memory loss, trouble with language , moods swings , and loss of movement.

Alzheimer 's disease is a specific form of Dementia -- a psychological disorder that directly effects a person 's cognitive functions as well as their behavioral abilities. According to Dr. Gary Wenk, professor of psychology at the university of Ohio, Alzheimer 's disease consists of a series of degenerative changes in a variety of neurotransmitter systems. As these neurotransmitters are drastically altered, brain cells begin to degenerate and die, which causes a sharp decline in a person 's memory and everyday functions. (Wenk, 2003)

There is many research being conducted to determine causes of Alzheimer’s, yet the definite cause still remains unknown. Alzheimer’s is caused by a mixture of things throughout someone 's life. Such as their genes, lifestyle, and environmental factors that affects the brain over time. Some parts of the brain always work together, but when being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s the brain slowly stops working together. Therefore, the brain is not working as it normally does. Alzheimer’s association describes that the disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain. The brain begins to shrink which affects nearly all of its functions. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual

Alzheimer's disease is a brain deteriorating disease. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is a term used to categorize memory loss and other intellectual abilities that affect the quality of life. There is no true reason why people acquire Alzheimer's but there are many things that can lead a patient to contract it. Alzheimer's disease may occur when there is a loss of neurons and when beta plaques form on the outside of neurons. This can interfere with the commutation of neurons which give the brain ability to coordinate with the human body. Scientists believe that people with Alzheimer's disease have acquired the disease from a combination of their genes, lifestyle and environmental factors that affect the brain over

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disease that attacks and ultimately destroys brain cells. Without these cells functioning properly, every aspect of a person’s life is adversely affected until they are no longer able to care for themselves. Despite years of research and the large amount of money that has gone into the study of this disease and its effects, there is much that remains a mystery in regards to Alzheimer’s disease. While great strides have been made towards a cause and ultimately a cure, there is much work to be done before Alzheimer’s disease will no longer be a threat.

BEFORE AD Alzheimer’s isn’t new to us. The name just changed. Before Alzheimer’s was dementia. That has been around for quite some time. For the bizarre behavior of humans with dementia, people began to do spiritual “treatment” to people. Putting the patient in asylums. Back then people did not worry about the disease because they would only live for about 30 years (Kelly,2008). In the eighteenth century, a French doctor named Mr. Pinel believed that mental illnesses had a cure. The term dementia was first used by him. People claimed he changed the way he thought about finding a cure. He thought doctors should change people with the illness by interacting with them. However, in the nineteenth century, Alzheimer believed that mental illnesses were caused because of brain illnesses instead of spiritual reasons (Shamy,2003) Alzheimer’s had a patient that had forgotten her last name as he told her to write it down. At that exact moment he knew there was something terribly wrong. She had symptoms of what we now call AD. On April 9, 1906 that patient had died. He then studied her brain under a microscope to find that she had tangles in her brain. The name AD was given to patients over time. Named after Alzheimer becomes he was the first to make the connections.

Alzheimer’s disease is a very slowly progressive disease that occurs inside the brain in which is characterized by damage of memory. Also this type of disease can lead into interruption in language, problem solving, planning and perception. The chance of a person developing Alzheimer’s disease increases enormously after the age of 70 (Crystal, 2009). Also people who are over the age of 85 have over a 50 percent chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This type of disease is not at all normal in the aging process and is also not something that happens out of no where in a person’s life.