Alzheimers Disease Essays

     Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, “a brain disorder that seriously affects a person’s ability to carry out daily activities (Shenk 14)”. Alzheimer’s is a progressive and irreversible brain disorder that slowly destroys a person’s memory and ability to learn, make judgments, communicate, and accomplish daily activities. As Alzheimer’s progresses, individuals may also experience changes in personality and behavior, such as anxiety, suspiciousness or aggravation, as well as illusions or hallucinations.

During the onset of the disease, symptoms are usually non-existant, and progress slowly over the course of many years, often going unnoticed until they become more severe. Alzheimer's is somewhat difficult to diagnose, but there are some common symptoms to all patients. Memory loss occurs in all patients. The person may have trouble remembering small things such as phone numbers, or where he/she put the keys. Eventually, short term memory is lost, and only memories in the far past are able to be recalled. People with Alzheimer's can become disoriented and can get lost easily when out on their own. Mood changes also occur, and the person can be easily irritated or agitated by seemingly insignificant things. Cognitive deterioration also occurs, with the person losing the ability to understand spoken language or recall the meanings of different words (Grayson, "Recognizing Alzheimer's" 1). Despite these common symptoms, making a diagnosis is difficult since Alzheimer's patientscan display the same symptoms as a head injury or depression.

Alzheimer’s disease is the six leading cause of death in America with its major cause still unknown. Scientist understand that even before early onset symptoms appear there are communication errors between the neurons of the brain. As the disease progresses, family members often notice that their loved ones are more forgetful then normal. The disease progressively worsens until one is unable to recognized loved ones, has difficulty speaking, walking, and even swallowing. The brain of one with advanced Alzheimer’s is actually radically different from that have a healthy brain.

Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease of the future. With the growing aged population, this disease, which affects primarily the elderly, will become of increasing relevance to the medical profession. Also, the high frequency of Alzheimer’s, and the high cost in labor, money, and material of caring for its victims shall put considerable burden on the society as a whole. Here, however, these issues are not going to be debated. Instead the pathology of Alzheimer’s will be reviewed to the extent it is known today.

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.

Alzheimer’s disease or AD is an incurable disorder of the brain that results in loss of normal brain structure and function. In an AD brain, normal brain tissue is slowly replaced by structures called plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The plaques represent a naturally occurring sticky protein called beta amyloid and in an Alzheimer’s brain, sufferer’s tend to accumulate too much of this protein. Neurofibrillary tangles represent collapsed tau proteins which, in a normal brain along with microtubules, form a skeleton that maintains the shape of the nerve cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, the tau proteins break loose from their normal location and form tangles. Without the support of these molecules, nerve cells collapse and die. As normal

Alzheimer’s Disease is indicated by the break down of the nervous system, essentially the neurons within the brain (MacGill, 2009). The break down leads to nerve cell eradication, and the casualty of tissue throughout the brain (MacGill, 2009). As the disease progress, the brain begins to shrink fiercely, developing loss of its normal functioning (MacGill, 2009). Abnormal protein groups and structures of plaques and tangles characterize the disease (MacGill, 2009). Plagues and tangles are not able to be viewed or tested in the living brain, but are able to be observed in an autopsy of an infected deceased (MacGill, 2009).

With the growing number of people becoming diagnosed, and experiencing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, we must begin to take precautions and somehow attempt to gain knowledge of how the disease can be better treated, and ultimately prevented.

The research into Alzheimer's Disease has come a long way since 1906 when it is was discovered by Alois Alzheimer. He detected microscopic brain tissue changes called senile and neuritic plaques in deceased patients. These are chemical deposits consisting of protein molecules called Amyloid Precursor Protein(APP) that are fundamental components of a normal brain. However in the brain of an Alzheimer patient, an enzyme cuts the APP apart and leaves fragments in the brain tissue. These combined with degenerating nerve cells cause the plaques or lesions. These lesions are found in many sections of the brain including the hippocampus which regulates emotion and memory, the basal forebrain, and especially the basal nucleus of Meynert and the cortex, where the memory function is located.(2) Another sign of a diseased brain are neurofibrillary tangles, which are malformations within nerve cells.

Alzheimer’s disease, considered the most common form of dementia, is a degenerative brain disorder which leads to loss of memory and decline of cognitive thinking. Alzheimer’s disease effects over 5 million Americans, a number which is expected to triple in the projected future, and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States (Dougherty, R.J., et al). Majority of these affected people are sixty-five years of age or older and have what is called late-onset Alzheimer’s, whilst a smaller margin of individuals is younger than sixty-five years of age and are said to have early-onset Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease presents itself in three main stages, is caused by the degeneration of neurons and by the changes in protein composition in the brain, and despite the lack of definitive, early diagnosis or preventative treatment the disease can to a certain degree be detected and managed.

A common observation in the brain of people who have died from Alzheimer’s is that plaques and tangles make from protein fragments are present. (A Century of Alzheimer’s Disease)

There are many symptoms of Early Onset Alzheimer's. The symptoms are divided into two categories: early and late. Early symptoms include: forgetting things one would usually remember; asking for the same information again; poor judgement; easily losing track of date, time, and where one is; difficulty solving problems; changes in personality and lack of motivation. Some of the late symptoms are: severe mood swings; confusion about time, date and year; not knowing/being suspicious of who family/friends are; severe memory loss and difficulty swallowing, walking, and

Alzheimer's disease typically develops slowly and progressively gets worse over time. It affects the brain area, including one’s memory, thinking, judgment, language, problem-solving, personality and movement (Kurz, 2012). There are five stages associated with Alzheimer's disease which include (a) preclinical Alzheimer's disease, (b) mild cognitive impairment, (c) mild dementia due to Alzheimer's, (d) moderate dementia due to Alzheimer's and (e) severe dementia due to Alzheimer's (Kurz, 2012). Looking at the situation of the 77-years old woman, she is categorized to be in the mild dementia stages where memory loss, changes in personality, wandering, difficulty in expressing thought is occurring. Individuals at this stage are well monitored; they have a hard time remembering recent events or newly learned information while they repeatedly ask the same question over and over. They become socially challenged and isolated with possibility of displaying feelings of anger, guilt and irritability. It is very common for them to get lost in familiar places and can become agitated and hostile

The brains of patients with Alzheimer's have distinctive formations—abnormally shaped proteins called tangles and plaques—that are recognised as the hallmark of the disease. Not all brain regions show these characteristic formations. The areas most prominently affected are those related to memory.

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.