Alzheimer's Disease Essay

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 in many ways is not yet defined. It is a progressive disease afflicting between 5 and 15 percent of people over 65. Additionally, it is not restricted to the elderly, reportedly having

Alzheimer’s Disease is an irreversible, genetically linked illness. This disease was chosen for the topic of this essay under the consideration that in many families the illness can be incredibly tragic, passing down for generations without mercy. It is not rare to encounter families in which each member is afflicted with a form, mild or severe, of Alzheimer’s. The disease is a progressive brain disease which comes in two separate types: Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease and Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. These will be discussed in full later on in the paper.

get it, but most cases are the only ones in a family. Some patients who develop

In the United States there are approximately 5.4 million people living with Alzheimer’s. Every sixty-nine seconds a person is diagnosed. This is an ongoing issue, and unless something is done, sixteen million people will be affected by 2050 (Latest).

Alzheimer’s disease is a complex illness that affects the brain tissue directly and undergoes gradual memory and behavioral changes which makes it difficult to diagnose. It is known to be the most common form of dementia and is irreversible. Over four million older Americans have Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to triple in the next twenty years as more people live into their eighties and nineties. (Johnson, 1989). There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s but throughout the past few years a lot of progress has been made.

     It is inevitable that eventually each of us will grow old and begin to face more and more health problems as our age rises. Elderly people are challenged by many illnesses and diseases that unfortunately, are incurable. One disease that becomes more common as people age is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s a common cause and a form of dementia and can severely damage a patient’s cognitive functions and can ultimately cause death. Living with Alzheimer’s disease can be saddening for both the sufferer and the family. Family and friends will find it very hard to cope when a loved one begins slipping away and losing memory of who they are.

The call came at 9:05 p.m. on January 20, 2004. Mom had just finished telling the news about the girl's grandfather. He had Alzheimer's Disease and was not doing well at all. The ruling was that he probably would not make it through the night. She knew exactly what the news was the moment her mom said, "No." After the news came, the decision was made they would leave the next day to attend the funeral.

In 1901, a fifty one year old woman named Frau Auguste D. was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. She had an unusual bunch of symptoms. While she had no history of prior psychiatric illness, her husband had noticed that Frau D. was becoming increasing paranoid, hallucinatory, agitated, disoriented, and having increasing difficulties with language functions and memory.

Alzheimer’s disease slowly steals a person’s dignity and erases precious memories. The “Alzheimer’s Disease Guide”, found on WebMD explains that tasks become more difficult to do often leading to confusion and behavior changes. The article further explains the progression of the disease also brings hardship to family and friends (1). To best cope with Alzheimer’s we must better understand the disease.

Alzheimer’s Disease is similar to a literal chipping block of the brain; it is like this conscious genetic machine that (figuratively and) continually deep-fries brain cells and makes them clump up into masses that entangle many cognitive processes that allow an individual to be who they are. It is the slow progression into death where the mental faculties are ravaged and pilfered; the sinews that tie each and every neuron and synapse together. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a condition where there are different effects for different people; but most of all, it is a disease that robs a person of their personality, memory, individuality and their functional health (Kail, 568).

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.

Although Alzheimer’s disease (henceforth: AD) has been around since the 19th century or possibly even earlier and was at a point in time classified as senile dementia, it wasn’t until 1906 following Dr. Alois Alzheimer’s encounter with Auguste Deter at a Frankfurt asylum that the name of the disease was finally coined. Since then, major developments relating to the disease has taken place. In our report, we addressed some of the areas of the history, contemporary and prospects of the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease has been under research for many years. This study was designed to enhance the understanding of the Alzheimer’s disease gene biomarkers cortical and hippocampal atrophy. There were a total of 148 subjects used during this study. Subjects used in this study were 50 years of age or older and were able to carry out activities of daily living independently. Subjects also had to obtain a score of 24 or great on the Mini-Mental State Examination in order to participate in the study. During the study there were 50 subjects that were cognitively normal and 98 who had a mild cognitive impairment. A diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment was determined by lowered age and education neuropsychological adjusted norms, or cognitive deterioration at 1.5 standard deviation. Mild cognitive impairment could also be determined by a dementia rating score of less than 1.

Alzheimer is a disease that affects the elderly most. The disease was discovered by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in the year 1906 when he was examining a female’s brain. He found out that the woman displayed memory loss, language problems and some inexplicable changes in behavior. The disease was named after the doctor who was a German psychiatrist and a neuropathologist. Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disorder that leads to memory loss, personality changes, and language problems (Gilbert & Julie 2). The disease is mostly diagnosed in people over the age of 65 years, though there is a small minority of people under the age of 50 who get the disease. Studies show that 1% of a whole population aged between the ages 65-75 have severe