Essay about Effects of Alzheimer’s Disease

     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.

Memories start to disappear; learning, thinking, and planning become more difficult in the mild to moderate stage of the disease. The plaques and tangles begin to spread to other areas of the brain essential for speaking, forming words, and understanding speech. Spatial orientation areas of the brain begin to diminish. An analogy of a piece of fruit rotting from the inside out can be drawn. Because changes in behaviors and personality become apparent, it is at this stage AD is often diagnosed. However, there is not a definite diagnosis available for a living patient at this time and is only verified with an autopsy. (Edmund G. Howe, 2006) This mild to moderate stage of AD last between 2 to 10 years as more tangles and plaques are formed destroying more neurons in more areas of the brain. The brain literally begins to shrink. The ability to perform the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) such as meal preparation, home and money management progressively deteriorates. By the latter stages of AD, the damage to the entire cerebral cortex affects the most basic functions of the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) of eating and dressing oneself and most the basic elements of personal hygiene as bathing and using the toilet. The individual with AD becomes a shell of the person they once were and may lose the ability to recognize their dearest loved ones. In the final stages, lasting 1 to 5

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

Patients who suffer from AD also have their memory, ability to learn and to carry out activities affected. Since, AD is not just dementia related there is also another aspect to the disease that causes “progressive neurodegeneration” (Chen). The symptoms of AD are usually slow, but they get worse over time and start to affect your daily life. The majority of people affected by AD are aged 65 and older. If a family member has AD then future generations from that family member are more likely to have AD. This is a very important disease to try to find a cure because “by 2050 as many as 115 million people worldwide will have developed dementia“ (Chen). As of right now “AD affects more than 5 million people in the U.S. alone” (Chen). This creates a huge burden on the family because it leaves their loved ones unable to function alone or to be able to do anything alone. This puts the burden on the family because then they need to find the patient a home to live in to be taken care of or they have to bring the patient in to their home and take care of the patient 24/7. People suffering from AD need to be attended to at all times of the day and constantly reminded why and what they’re doing. This affects a family because then they’re not able to do their daily routines or continue to live their normal lives. The reason is because all of their energy needs to be focused on the family member suffering form the

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 disease (AD) is a progressive and fatal form of dementia, frequently seen in the elderly altering their cognition, thought process and behavior. AD is reported in about half of patients that have a dementia diagnosis; one study states that about 10.3% of the population over 65 years is affected by dementia with an increase to almost 50% over the age of 8 (Beattie, 2002). Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of the aging process in humans, but rather found in a group of diseases that affect the brain leading to a decline in mental and physical control. AD when diagnosed has a very slow and gradual course, initially affecting the individual’s short term memory (Beattie, 2002). Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death, affecting more than five million people in the United States and is also one of the most common forms of dementia. Dementia can be defined as a disorder of progressive cognitive impairment severe enough to affect daily functions of an individual’s life (Fillit, et al., 2002).

     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.

A brain deteriorates, slowly being engulfed by a mysterious disease. The neurons being cut off and destroyed by two abnormal structures. First memory is affected gradually getting worse. Then one is unable to think properly, reason, and lacks of self control. Gaps are formed in the brain 's ventricles, due to the amount of dead tissue. In the end, it will lead to death. All of this may sound like something from a science fiction movie but infact its very real. These are all known possible symptoms of a common disease that affects about millions of Americans. It is known as Alzheimer 's disease (AD), and I plan on explaining it a bit more in this paper. First I will explain the disease and list some facts about it,then I will talk about some commonly asked questions about it.

As per Lakhan (2017), Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a disorder dealing with neurodegeneration manifesting the cognitive and behavioral impairment that extensively affects the lives of the people who have the disease. It doesn't have a cure and deals with a long pre-clinical period as well as a progressive course. In hippocampus and some areas of

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.

Moderate AD, which is known to be the longest lasting stage, can last for many years (Alzheimer’s Association, n.d). Behaviors associated with the middle-stage of the disease include progressive forgetfulness of events or about one 's own personal history, withdrawnness especially in socially or mentally challenging situations, poor mood regulation, confusion about where they are or what day it is, inability to recall personal address or telephone number or the high school or college from which they graduated, requiring assistance with choosing proper clothing for the season or the occasion, interruptions in sleep patterns such as sleeping during the day and becoming restless at night, increased wandering and becoming lost, as well as difficulty with controlling bladder and bowels in some individuals (Alzheimer’s Association, n.d). Progressive personality changes are also often associated with middle-stage AD, and include suspiciousness and delusions or compulsiveness (Pellico, 2013, p. 1238).

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.

According to Kerr, (2007) AD is largely related to the degeneration of brain weight because plaques and neuro- fibre tangles form, causing inflammation, disrupting neuronal transmission and killing brain tissues. AD is a progressive disease which harms the temporal and parietal brain lobes. This causes memory loss, deterioration of visual spatial skill, complexity in communication, judgement and recognition which in long term, results in death of brain cells (Alzheimer’s Association, 2011).

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

Based on the latest Census review, more than half of Americans with dementia due to AD are at the moderate or severe stages of the disease. The accumulating care burdens associated with the progression of AD place considerable stress on caregivers and families of the person with AD, and often determine whether that person is placed in a nursing home. Furthermore, greater impairments in cognition, ADL, and behavior are associated with higher societal costs of AD-related care. Successful symptomatic therapies, particularly in the moderate and severe stages of the disease, may provide substantial health and quality of life benefits, not only for the patient, but also for those in their caregiving network via reduced AD-related burden and stress. Moreover, effective treatment of symptoms may also delay nursing home placement and help reduce costs related to patient care (Cummings et al.,