Essay on Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, accounting for 65–70% of all cases (Jellinger, Janetzky, Attems, & Kienzl, 2008). The other dementias are of the Parkinson 's group, the fronto-temporal group and the vascular group. The total worldwide yearly costs for the treatment and care of patients suffering from dementia are estimated to be around 250 billion US dollars. The lifetime risk for AD between the ages of 65 and 100 is 33% for men and 45% for women with an annual increase of 1–2% in the seventh decade to almost 60% in the 10th decade with doubling every 5 years (Jellinger et al., 2008). AD is incurable, and thus represents a major public health problem. AD represents a challenge to humanity due to its relatively recent discovery, progressive nature of the illness, and complex diagnosis.

Prior to diagnosis the individual may show signs of forgetfulness due to an incline in memory functions. They may even show signs of a decline in reasoning and communication

Certain qualities are consistently observed in the Alzheimer’s victim. These dysfunction’s, though, are not exclusive to Alzheimer’s disease. Consequently, declaring Alzheimer’s by these parameters is a matter of degree rather than an absolute. Characteristic dysfunction’s have been noted in Alzheimer’s victims, but the degree and severity of these varies from patient to patient. Thus, evaluation of the patient’s mental status must be made based on the sum, rather than a single characteristic. Memory is one of the first noticed deficiencies, beginning typically with the recent and short term memory, and progressing from there as the disease grows more severe. In addition, deterioration in language skills, attention span, praxis (performance of an action), and visuospatial skills are commonly seen. Also observed are changes in the actions and personality of the Alzheimer’s victim. These include changes in mood, motor activities, activities of daily living, socialization skills, psychotic disturbances, vegetative symptomology, and rise in anxiety levels. Again, the

With Alzheimer’s there are 3 stages in which a person will go through. First, there is the early stage. You may observe mild memory loss, and as the disease worsens so do the symptoms. In the moderate stage you may notice a difficulty of managing personal finances, household tasks, personal care, sleep routine and many more. As you progress to the severe stage you may experience forgetfulness of family members, communication, lack of control over bladder or bowel, and the need for help of activities of daily living. Symptoms of dementia can vary greatly. In order to be diagnosed with dementia at least two things will need to be present within the following: memory, communication, the ability to focus, reasoning, and vision perception. The symptoms of dementia start off slowly then gradually increase, this is known as a progressive

This disease is broken down into three stages the first being preclinical Alzheimer's disease, then mild cognitive impairment and lastly, dementia. During the first stage, changes in the brain start to occur and symptoms such as confusion begin. In the second stage, an individual is likely to still perform daily tasks on their own although symptoms of the disease are becoming more noticeable. During the last stage, which is dementia, an individual is typically dependent on a caretaker at this point.

There are 3 main stages of Alzheimer’s, each more progressive. In stage 1 the person may experience short term memory loss, the inability to concentrate, the inability to find their way home, problems driving, disorientation, poor judgement and delusions. Stage 1 usually lasts about 1-3 years before the person is said to be in stage 2 of the disease. In stage 2 all of the signs and symptoms of stage 1 are still present. Stage 2 includes hallucinations, difficulty walking, wandering and pacing, and incontinence of the bowel and bladder. Other symptoms include sundowning which is increased disorientation in the late afternoon and evening hours, perseveration which is repeating an action, and aphasia which is problems with verbal communication. Stage 2 lasts between 2 and 10 years. A person in this stage may still be able to live at home. Stage 3 is the most progressive stage of the disease. In stage 3 a person will need total assistance with their activities of daily living which include eating, bathing, dressing and walking. A person in stage 3 is verbally unresponsive, totally incontinent, and has minimal

The alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging and only up to 5 percent of people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer's (also known as younger-onset), which often appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s. This disease doesn’t have a cure, but there are treatments for symptoms available and research still continues to find the answer to cure this bad disease. Also, an interesting fact is that ninety percent of what we know about Alzheimer's has been discovered in the last 15 years. Lastly, Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over a number of years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimer's, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. It’s the sixth leading cause of death in the United

Alzheimer’s disease, first described in 1907, is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States (Ramachandran, 2016). This disease gets worse gradually over time. People, predominantly women, are expected to live approximately eight to ten years after diagnosed (Bird, 2015). According to the Alzheimer’s Disease Association, there are approximately three million cases in the United States each and every year alone (Association®, 2016). People with Alzheimer’s disease suffer from a wide range of difficult incurable problems. Alzheimer’s disease is believed to prevent correct workflow of the 100 billion nerve cells in the human brain. Oxygen sluggishly being supplied to the brain causes several Alzheimer indicators to occur; memory loss, behavior changes, slurred speech, poor judgment, and hallucinations. According to Bird, 95% of patients with Alzheimer’s are over the age of sixty-five (Bird, 2015). At the age of sixty-five individuals brain activity starts to slow causing build-ups.

First, those who may be suffering from Alzheimer’s or have a loved one who may be suffering from Alzheimer’s should be aware of the symptoms. A few of the main symptoms would include trouble remembering newly learned information, disorientation, mood and behavior changes and deepening confusion about events, time and place. Trouble remembering newly learned

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was initially described in 1907 by Bavarian neuropathologist and psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer, and today is defined as a progressive and irreversible decline in cognitive abilities related to memory, behaviors, functionality, orientation, communication, language, abstract thinking and learning (Jacob, 2013). According to the latest figures, AD affects 10% of adults 65 and older and almost 50% of those over the age of 85. There are as many as 4.5 Americans currently living with AD, and the estimated that upwards to 13 million we be inflicted with AD within the next 50 years (Imbimbo, Lombard & Pomara,

The onset of AD is subtle, and symptoms may develop very slowly over a period of several years. The three stages of Alzheimer’s are as follows: preclinical, a period when amyloid plaques are accumulating, and nerve cell changes are occurring, but in this stage, there are no clinical symptoms; mild cognitive impairment, a time when memory problems are noticed but not

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most devastating diseases affecting approximately 5.3 million people in the U.S. (Alzheimer’s Association, 2015; Caminiti, 2015; Hammer, 2016). It is not exclusively a disease of old age as over 200,000 are diagnosed under the age of 65. Other startling facts are that a majority of afflicted by Alzheimer’s are women and the rates of diagnosis are increasing substantially (Alzheimer’s association, 2015). Alzheimer’s is a complicated disease that robs a person of their memory and eventually their bodily functions, rendering the person unable to care for him or herself. Furthermore, Alzheimer’s is fatal with no cure or prevention known to this date. There has been a 71 percent increase in Alzheimer’s deaths compared to other major deadly diseases during the first 13 years of this century.

Language problems develop where the patient will have difficulty naming simple objects or maintaining conversation. A person may also wander as the disease develops. The patient will be in a previously familiar area, but feel completely lost and not know how to get back home. Reasoning skills including ability to make decisions and judgments are affected. Eventually the disease progresses to the brainstem affecting vital functions eventually resulting in death.

Symptoms are different for everyone but, it can be memory loss, hallucination, depression, and forgetting how to do things or people (Jun, 2014). Depression is part of the stages because they do not understand what is going on and feel alone . The stages of Alzheimer’s are different for each person and every person reacts different. Alzheimer's not only that person but, also their families and friends. Stages usually go hippocampus, logical thoughts, mood swing, hallucination, deepest memory, and then control center (Jun, 2014). Hippocampus is where the newest memory is located this may be what a person had to eat or what a person did that day. Next is the frontal lobe where logical thoughts are taking place. Mood swings are very normal with

Stage 2 Subjective memory complaints (subjective cognitive impairment): Complaints of trouble with recall of names; complaints of misplacing objects. Stage 3 Earliest clear deficits (mild cognitive impairment): Difficulties often noted at work; may have gotten lost; may have misplaced a valuable object. Stage 4 Clear deficits on clinical examination (moderate cognitive impairment): Decreased knowledge of personal and/or current events; often trouble with travel and finances. Stage 5 Can no longer survive independently in the community without some assistance (moderately severe cognitive impairment): Difficulty with recall of some important personal details (e.g., address, names of one or more important schools attended); may require curing activities of daily living. Stage 6 Largely unable to verbalize recent events in their life (severe cognitive impairment): May forget name of spouse; incontinence develops as this stage progresses; requires increasing assistance with activities of daily living; increased behavioral problems (e.g., agitation, delusions). Stage 7 Few intelligible words or no verbal abilities (very severe cognitive impairment): Loses the ability to walk as this stage evolves. (p.