Prevalence of Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease in Elders

Throughout this line of study, Alzheimer’s disease is a specific form of dementia. According to Alzheimer’s Association, dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability that is severe enough to hinder daily life. Memory loss is a symptom of dementia and the most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s. One of the most common and severe symptom of Alzheimer’s is difficulty remembering newly learned information. The changes of Alzheimer’s normally begin in the part of the brain that affects learning (Overview Alzheimer's Association). Some other symptoms of Alzheimer’s include gradual memory loss, the decline in capability to carry out everyday tasks and the loss of their language skills. According to Bialystok the rate of

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia that generally initiates the lost memory, problem of critical thinking and behavior problems for the elderly patients. It’s not a normal part of aging but the large number of elderly people reached 65 and older are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The most common early symptoms are struggle in remembering recent events or short term memory. As the disease advance more symptoms begin to show up like problems in speaking and language, disorientation like getting lost and cease to remember the present activity that they are supposed to do. Mood swings go from happy to sad for no reason. Not managing their self, personal hygiene

The term ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms which can include loss of memory, mood changes and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain conditions and diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. 
Age is the greatest risk factor for dementia. Dementia affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six over the age of 80. However, dementia is not restricted to older people: in the UK, there are over 17,000 people under the age of 65 with dementia, although this figure is likely to be an underestimate.

“Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia in elderly people which accounts for 60 to 80 percent of cases (Krishnan, D. S.)”. World Health Organization indicated that Alzheimer’s disease is the “6th leading cause of death in the

Dementia is a disorder that leads to a gradual loss of the cognitive capacity of an individual, ultimately affecting one’s daily activities. Dementia does manifests through the accompanying disorders because it does not exist on its own. In other words, dementia is a disorder that comes about through the existence of the related disorders. The main ones are four, but they are not the only disorders that cause dementia. These include Lewy Bodies dementia (LBD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD). Others include mixed dementia, Huntington’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus and Frontotemporal dementia. According to Ram (2006), these disorders have a broad spectrum of impacts on the patients besides having devastating effects on the overall economy of the world’s nations especially when the number is significantly high. The paper intends to dig out the milestones the dementia disorder has undergone.

An estimated 47.5 million people suffer from dementia. Every 4 seconds one new case of dementia is diagnosed. Dementia is a term that describes certain symptoms such as impairment to memory, communication and thinking. It is a group of symptoms and not just one illness. Even though one‘s chance of getting dementia increase with age, it is not a part of aging. Dementia is usually diagnosed after a series of assessments that includes a physical evaluation, memory tests, imaging studies and blood work. It affects three aspects of one’s mental function, cognitive dysfunction (Problems with memory, language, thinking and problem solving), psychiatric behavior (changes in personality, emotional control, social behavior and delusions) and difficulties with daily living activities (driving, shopping, eating and dressing). “The median survival time in women is 4.6 years and in men 4.1 years” (Warren, 2016).

From my experience, I never thought dementia as a major health problem and never heard of Alzheimer’s disease when I was in Nepal. I thought that as we get older, it’s natural that we leave our brain unexercised and loose memory. My grandfather was not officially diagnosed with dementia but now I think my grandfather had experienced dementia when he died at his 80s. I recognize his change in personality, frequent confusion and a declining

With dementia, due to a significant delay between onset of disease and actual diagnosis, it is difficult to estimate the prevalence in populations, as the total number of people having the condition at a given time is not known. The most recent data on the prevalence of

Although dementia is often viewed as an “old person’s disorder, its effects ripple down in many directions such as family, caregivers, finances, and the healthcare system, leaving behind many unanswered questions and confusion for all. The purpose of this paper will be to answer some of these questions, so that a better understanding of dementia will be possible. By doing so through research already performed,

Dementia is a continual or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or damage marked by memory disorders, character changes, and impaired reasoning. Dementia is not its own specific disease; it is a term in general that is used to describe various symptoms. There are two more common forms of dementia in the elderly which are vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. “An analysis of the most recent census estimates that 4.7 million people aged 65 years or older in the US were living with Alzheimer's disease in 2010”. (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/142214.php) Although dementia is a disease usually among the elderly, it may occur at any age.

In the United States, a total of 10% of adults aged more than sixty five have Alzheimer's that is the most common form of dementia. (Powers, 2003) Dementia is merely a classification that combines together a variety of symptoms. It should be noted that these symptoms can be caused by many other diseases or could even be mistaken as signs of aging. The disease is quite debilitating and leaves the person incapable of doing the simplest tasks in life. Dementia leads to behavioral upsets and personality changes that the caregivers of the patient should definitely know about.

Alzheimer’s disease is an affliction that many families and individuals all over the world have to endure. As the individual slowly loses their memory and their ability to recognize themselves and others, they succumb to the disease soon after. Elderly people are most often associated with this disease, but a significant population under the age of 40 has shown symptoms of this disease. The positive news is that people, especially young people, can take precautionary measures to avoid being afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Researchers have conducted studies to determine whether Alzheimer’s is truly more prevalent in females rather than males. Alzheimer’s disease differs in how men and women are affected. It is essential to look at the physiological differences in men and women to fully comprehend the difference in prevalence factors. If medical professionals can better understand how the differences in AD in males vs. females, the better the treatments can be made available for certain genders. Treatments

Dementia is define as one of the worse diseases in society today .Dementia is described as a symptoms that included decrease of intellectual functioning that interferes with normal life functions to included :language ,judgment or reasoning of all emotional and behavioral controls .Dementia has no set attachment over age ,gender, race nor religion .It is now very clear that Alzheimer's is the major cause of Dementia in elderly people . However, it also been proven that Dementia doesn’t start at the late age of 65 or 70, it has been noted that the onsite can start as early as 48 years of age. According to Banerjee and Vanessa Lawrence Dementia is a condition that will forever be an important problem in our society today. However,

In regards to Alzheimer’s disease, there are two types of the disease: sporadic and familial. Sporadic Alzheimer’s disease occurs when the disease develops with no one in the affected individual’s family having had it before. Familial Alzheimer’s disease occurs when the affected individual has a family history of Alzheimer’s disease and develops the disease due to this predisposition. It is thought that the APOE-4 gene, or apolipoprotein E-4, is responsible for familial alzheimer’s disease, as it has been shown to be present in over half of the population of those with Alzheimer’s disease and to potentially be the cause of increased plaque production within those who have the gene.

Usually in chronic or progressive nature, Dementia is a syndrome where there is a deterioration in one’s cognitive function. Which is dramatically greater than normal cognitive deterioration expected from normal aging. It is caused by a variety of diseases and injuries that affect the brain, such as a stroke or Alzheimer’s disease, 60-70% of cases are contributed to Alzheimer’s. Dementia affects memory, comprehension, calculation, language, judgment, thinking, and learning capacity. This is devastating on the person affected and also the family of the person affected and can commonly lead to deterioration in emotional control, motivation, and social behavior. Worldwide, it is estimated that 47.5 million people are living with dementia, 7.7 million new cases every year, and it is estimated that 75.6 million will be affected in 2030.