Personal Narrative: The Fight To End Alzheimer's

He smiled at me with tearful eyes as his pain slowly diffused away. 'Thank You Dr Duraiz!' he said. So exhausted he was, and in considerable pain, too, that he fell asleep within moments. My grandfather suffers from Alzheimer's disease and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia. It was a cold winter night around 3 a.m that he became agitated and started complaining of abdominal pain due to urinary retention. As my parents were discussing for him to be taken to the hospital, i stepped in. I argued against him to be taken to the hospital. Living in a small town of Pakistan has it's own disadvantages. Not having proper medical care and/or a proper medical setup. Studying at one of the best medical schools, Aga Khan Medical College, i found our city hospital to be very unhygenic and was sure that my grandfather would end up having a urinary tract infection. Instead, i went to a medical supply department and bought all the equipment needed to catheterize him. And my decision paid-off well. My grandfather did not have to go through the trouble of being transported to the hospital and it gave me memory that i will cherish my entire life.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) has been implicated with two major pathologies, the accumulation of amyloid-B and tau phosphorylation (_). These pathologies have long been implicated with the gene Alipoprotein E (ApoE) which continually showed a dosage-dependent effect on amyloid-B clearance (_). Many studies have shown correlated linkage between ApoE and tau as well as their possible interactions (_). Tau phosphorylation has continually been found among many AD patients suffering with and without amyloid-B deposition (_). However, it is still unclear whether ApoE affects tau pathology separately from amyloid-B. Shi et al. aimed to conduct an experiment to show the direct association of ApoE to taupathy while eliminating the

They say I look like you, that I sound like you, I remind everyone of you. But you forgot who I was.

Sometimes becoming elderly does not mean losing everything, and not being able to walk and do things. It can mean you grow frail yes, however it does means growing wise, smart and being able to cherish your life, looking back on the things that you once loved so dearly. I chose to write this paper on my Lee Manor resident Jean. She is a very smart lady that has many different aspects to her. She is slowly deteriorating, but has never once turned rude. She wanders a lot, and is on a variety of different medications, but that has not stopped her from anything. This paper will talk about the different ways that we can try to help her, and will show the reader a little bit about her life.

A talk on antibiotics first sparked my interest in the importance of drugs. Ever since I have

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.

It was faded red, and slow: on Volkswagen time. Others rushed impatiently. It said, “Speed limit will do. No hurry.”

I was 16 when I learned what it meant to be dead. I had known of it before, but I didn’t really know death -- I was too young to really understand. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to ward off the waves from washing away my grandparents when they were in Mexico, and I was here. We were separated by oceans of land so our contact was limited. And the oceans only got deeper as I realized that Alzheimer's meant something beyond just memory loss. It meant I watched my Abuelito’s glassy eyes lead to an empty attic, and knew I was waiting for a tsunami to take it over like it had the rest of him.

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.

The disease called Alzheimer’s is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States (Weiner, 1987). It is estimated that the elderly population will double between now and 2030. During this period, the number of elderly will grow by an average of 2.8% annually (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). By 2050, the number of people with Alzheimer’s is estimated to range from 11.3 million to 16 million (Alzheimer’s Association, 2005). These startling numbers should prompt an examination into one of the leading causes of death among this group of people. Understanding what Alzheimer’s is and the known causes of the disease are a good starting point. For those who have aging family members, knowing the risk factors and warning

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia known today. The term “dementia” refers to a variety of conditions that arise from the loss of nerve cell function and/or nerve cell death in the brain, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other types of mixed dementia. Although all types of dementia arise from neuronal damage and/or death, each form of dementia is associated with distinct brain abnormalities and symptom patterns. Once a patient has been diagnosed with dementia, a physician must conduct further tests in order to determine the exact form of dementia that is present. Recent research indicates that many individuals,

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, meaning it attacks the neurons within the brain. Neurons are the areas of the brain that allow for chemical messages, or neurotransmitters, to be transmitted. These neurons are necessary for connections with other nerve cells, and without them, the neuronS ultimately die. Alzheimer’s is a form of, and the most common cause of, dementia, or loss of intellectual capacity and personality. ("Dementia.") Alzheimer’s disease, or AD, is not a normal part of aging, although risk of developing the illness increases with age. The onset behavior of the disease normally doesn’t appear until age sixty and older. Though symptoms that appear before age sixty have occurred, it is less common and tends

Direct costs are medical and social support costs that include diagnosis, home care, and nursing home care. Most formal health care comes from direct-care workers who include nurse aides, personal aides, and home health aides. They assist with personal care, housekeeping, and food preparation (Alzheimer’s Association, 2011).

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.