The Effects Of Alzheimer 's Disease Essay

Specific Purpose: My specific purpose is to inform my audience about Alzheimer’s disease. I will discuss the definition of Alzheimer’s disease, who discovered the diseas, and the Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

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

Everyday more and more people are effected by dementia. This disease is taking over the lives of innocent people around the world. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources have designed The National Plan to Address Alzheimer’ Disease. This plan focuses on many important areas greatly affected by this irreversible disease and concentrates on the struggles one faces during its presence. I found three areas to be very important to the future of Alzheimer’s and other dementias; Expand research aimed to identify and treat Alzheimer’s, Educate and support people with Alzheimer’s and their families upon diagnosis, and Enable family caregivers to continue to provide care while maintaining their own health and well-being.

Dementia is an extremely common disease among the elderly, with 4 million Americans currently suffering from the Alzheimer’s type alone. Figures show that 3% of people between the ages of 65-74 suffer from the disease, rapidly increasing to 19% for the 75-84 age bracket, and as high as 47% for the over 85s. Therefore, it is easy to see why Dementia is such a large part of many people’s lives, whether they are suffering from the condition themselves, or have an elderly relative who requires full time care just to undertake simple day to day tasks. The disease can be extremely traumatic for the patient and their families, as the person, who may have been extremely lively and bright throughout their

Alzheimer’s is an irreversible, progressive disease of the brain that gradually destroys memory as well as thinking skills. It eventually destroys the ability to perform the simplest chores. In many individuals with Alzheimer’s, the symptoms manifest after 65 years of age. Among the elderly people, Alzheimer’s illness is the leading cause of dementia (Stern, 2006). Dementia includes a loss of behavioral abilities and cognitive function including thinking, reasoning, and remembering. The loss of behavioral abilities and cognitive function may interfere with an individual’s daily activities of living. Dementia varies in severity from the mildest phase, at onset, affecting an individual’s functioning to the most serious phase when the individual must depend entirely on other people for basic daily living activities. (Pasquier, 1999). This paper will explain the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia since the two are greatly confused.

Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that greatly affects people with memory loss and is common in the middle and old age group. Since it is a disease that can not be cured, many people want to gain more insight on how to help people with Alzheimer’s disease and how it affects them. This can be taught through a countless number of genres. Today, the two genres that look at the topic of Alzheimer’s disease are care manuals and autobiographies. Even though both genres discuss the topic of Alzheimer’s, autobiographies are more subjective because they contain more personal content while care manuals are more objective since they contain factual information despite the fact that it appeals to pathos in some

“Dementia is characterized by chronic, global, non-reversible deterioration in memory, executive function, and personality. Speech and motor functions may also be impaired” (Butler and Radhakrishnan, 2011). As defined by Butler and Radharkrishnan, dementia is a disease that affects a person for their whole life. In the next part of this paper, I’m going to talk about the dementia and the effects it has on a person live whether it is with the symptoms, overall experience with it, and what exactly it does to the body. Dementia isn’t a fun disease to have or deal with. According to the World of Health Organization, over 35 million people have dementia (Robitaille, Garcia, & McIntosh, 2015). I’m mainly going to talk about the specific type of dementia Alzheimer’s. “Alzheimer’s disease is defined as a type of dementia characterized by an onset and slow deterioration, and involves impairments in memory, speech, personality, and executive function”(Butler and Radharkrishnan, 2011). Memory loss isn’t just the only thing that happens with dementia. They also experience impairments in language, communication, focus, and reasoning (Ellis, 2013).

My memorable journey onto the Alzheimer’s world begins in my late twenties. I used to work as an activity director in a retirement home for senior citizens. I just knew for protocol that more than a quarter of the total population of the residents was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s as a secondary diagnose.

Walk into any senior home nowadays and there will be at least one person afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This progressive,

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.

For decades society has been dealing with the dreadful effects of Alzheimer’s disease, from the emotional diagnosis, to family member involvement, and the demanding needs, financially. Scientist and researchers, with the monetary contributions from fundraising organizations like, The Alzheimer’s Association, The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, along with many additional establishments work around the clock expectantly to find a cure for this mind altering disease. Now a days, there are many groups available for any person needing information on Alzheimer’s disease. Personal experience gained from caring for the elderly in my lifetime, is the motivation behind my awareness of this dreadful disease. It wasn’t until my job as a supervisor of an Alzheimer’s unit, that my understanding of this ghastly disease, made me grasp just how tough it is for every person involved. This unbearable disease, becomes a family disease, family members are faced with many heart wrenching decisions and robbed of their loved ones. Just envision, if you will, awakening one morning and nothing is familiar, your wife/husband, children, or friends. Imagine, if it’s your mom or dad, either way devastation is what comes to mind. This disease steals your memories, the life you once recognized has vanished. The topics covered in the following text include, an overview of Alzheimer’s disease/dementia, some statistics, emotional effect on those with A.D., family member involvement

The disease I chose to discuss this week is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive disorder in which brain cells deteriorate, resulting in the loss of cognitive functions, primarily memory, judgement and reasoning, movement coordination and pattern recognition. In advanced stages of the disease, all memory and mental functioning may be lost. Alzheimer’s disease affects the central nervous system. There are ten early signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease which are:

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease of the human brain that is characterized by impairment of memory and other mental functions. This disease is commonly recognized with older adults over the age of 65. Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia, which is the loss of cognitive functioning—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—and behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities(National Institute of Aging). Alzheimer’s disease is ranked third in cause of death for older people.

The article, Alzheimer’s Disease, is about a lot of meaningful topics. Some things that this book includes is what it is like to have the disease, dealing with the disease in families, treatments to help them and how you can care and support them through this hard process. It also included the history behind the disease and how much more scientist have learned about Alzheimer’s over the year’s. The main reason this book was created was to help families who have a someone with the disease to understand it more and to be more informed about all the effects and background knowledge of Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s Disease, also contains how children

Alzheimer’s disease affects 1 out of every 8 people in the United States. It is a long and debilitating disease that affects every aspect of a person’s life from the way they preform daily tasks, to the physical and mental abilities that are diminishing. Along with the lifestyle changes that Alzheimer’s disease presents, it also affects one’s psychological perspective as well their view on what they can offer their family and society. There are some ways to maintain a level of independence with a disease of this magnitude but there are also factors in lifestyle choices that can make it worse. Alzheimer cannot be cured, it cannot be slowed, but there are ways to keep the effected person at a certain level of comfort, independence and safety