Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia affecting the older population. Symptoms are more noticeable over time due to the severity of the stages worsening. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. It accounts for fifty to eighty percent of dementia cases. Contrary to belief Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging. Different parts of the brain are affected causing multiple symptoms sometimes not diagnosed until later stages in the disease.
Nerve cell death and tissue throughout the brain is the most significant affect over time. Naturally by age twenty-five the brain starts to decrease in size. With Alzheimer’s, the amount decrease is extremely significant. The cortex begins to shrivel up which is the part of the brain required for planning, remembering, and thinking. The most noticeable shrinkage occurs in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for the formation of new memories, it is also located inside the cortex. Upon further inspection under microscope, tissue samples are observed and synapses and nerve cell count is severely decreased. Tangles, are also found which our twisted strands of another protein due to nerve cells dying and bunching together. Plaques and tangles are prime suspects in the death and tissue loss in the Alzheimer’s brain. Beta-amyloid is a chemical and is sticky which causes it to gradually build up into plaques. This chemical derives from a larger protein found in the nerve cells with fatty membranes. These tangles destroy a vital cell transport system made of proteins.
There are seven stages of Alzheimer’s, classified by Dr. Barry Reisberg, M.D. clinical director of the New York University School of Medicine’s Silberstein Aging and Dementia Research Center. Each stage carr...
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...ally during this stage patients will lose their ability to control movement completely, but still may say words and certain phrases. He/she will need assistance with most of their daily living and require personal care round the clock. Also, they lose the ability to smile or sit without support.
Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is not an exact science. Certain tests are completed to assist in the diagnosis. These tests include; mental status testing, neurological exam and thorough medical history, physical tests are also completed.
There are no current treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers are constantly looking for new and advanced treatments to alter the course. Any breakthrough in progress will ensure the improvement of the quality of life of people with dementia.
Works Cited
www.alz.org
www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease
Alzheimer is a dementia type of disease named after Dr. Alois alzheimer that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills,and eventually , the ability to do simple things, or recognize their family. The first case occurred in the 1906 when a woman died on a unusual mental illness. After she died Dr.Alois examined her brain , amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary. Alzheimer’s is in older people the most common cause of dementia. Dementia is a loss of remembering ,thinking and reasoning skills, that intervenes with your daily life and activities. It is very common in people over sixty years of age. People younger than sixty years can also
Doctors need a sure way to diagnose the disease before treatment or studies can be done. The diagnosis is an autopsy of brain tissue examined under a microscope. In addition, medical history, a physical exam, and mental status tests are used for diagnosis (Posen, 1995). Often, tests are done to rule out other potential causes of the dementia. This allows the identification of other causes of thinking and behavioral changes to be made before concluding that the patient has Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. The tests that are requested to be done include CT and MRI scans to rule out strokes or brain tumors which could account for change in memory and behavior; thyroid and psychological tests which can also detect thinking and behavior problems (Posen, 1995).
Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease: Patient History, Exams, and More. (n.d.). WebMD. Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/guide/making-diagnosis
There are three different abnormalities that can make up Alzheimer’s disease. The first abnormality is beta-amyloid peptide cut from APP, a membrane precursor protein (Marieb and Hoehn 2013). Too much beta-amyloid is toxic and causes plaque buildup between neurons that reduces levels of acetylcholine which makes is difficult to retrieve old memories and make new ones (Marieb and Hoehn 2013). Another abnormality of Alzheimer’s disease is the presence of neurofibrillary tangles inside the neuron. These tangles consist of tau, a protein that leaves its stabilizing role and binds to another tau molecule forming a neurofibrillary tangle. (Marieb and Hoehn 2013). Neurofibrillary tangles then kill the neuron. The final abnormality of Alzheimer’s disease is brain shrinkage. The brain shrink...
Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia which is a brain disorder that impairs mental functioning. Dementia attacks the part of the brain which controls memory, language, and thought. It makes everyday tasks like remembering to brushing your teeth, or to pay your bills next to impossible to do, which is why so many people who are diagnosed with this disease are in complete care. This disease has different phases, the first being slight forgetfulness and then the persons emotions may heighten as well as language impairment, violent outbursts, loss of bladder control and from there it keeps getting worse until complete dysfunction of the brain occurs and eventually death, which most of the time is the result of infection.
degeneration 3 A nerve cell has numerous axons and dendrites coming out of it. A neurofibrillary tangle is when the neuron changes. A number of dendrites are missing and the nucleus is filled with protein filaments resembling steel wool. Although all elderly people have a few of these helix shaped bundles in their brain as they are normal indicators of aging, Alzheimer's patients have. more than usual.
What is Alzheimer's Disease? Alzheimer's Disease is an existential form of Dementia. Alzheimer's is a gradually crippling disease that affects an individual’s mental and physical capabilities over time. The disease develops predominantly within aged individuals. It is unknown as to what factors contribute to the etiology, or cause, of Alzheimer's Disease. In order to better understand Alzheimer's Disease, medical research and theories have helped shed a light as to how Alzheimer's occurs. By understanding what events lead to the cause of the disease, a specific treatment can then be developed that can hopefully stop or even reverse this debilitating disease that affects the elderly.
There are three stages towards Alzheimer’s and one should be aware of the important signs and symptoms. For instance, one should be aware of co...
Alzheimer’s can be diagnosed before age 65, although rare, and is caused by a mutation in 3 known genes. About 5 percent of those who are under 65 and possess the ailment have AD in their family history. Given that the symptoms of AD are caused by plaque in the brain, causing loss of nerve cells that help the body communicate with the brain, mutations to these genes; amyloid precursor protein, presenilin 1, and presenilin 2 cause a excessive production of certain proteins (primarily a B-42 form of amyloid protein), and therefore spark an excessive growth of plaque cells which are toxic to the neurons of the brain. For those cases of Alzheimer’s that occur after age 65, a genetic mutation has yet to be proven, although some may be linked, to the fact that a difference may cause an increased chance of developing the ailment. Whatever the case may be for patients over 65 years old, the disease and its symptoms are caused by neurofibrillary tangles of almyloid plaques. It is impossible for someone to test positive for Alzheimer’s Disease, because the only way to determine an affirmative case i...
There is no quick and easy way to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. In fact a diagnosis can only be conclusively arrived at following autopsy of the ...
Closer – In closing, Alzheimer’s disease has proven to be a very complicated and stressful disease. There is no cure and it is often difficult to diagnose. AD cannot yet be stopped or reversed, an early diagnosis can allow a person the opportunity to live well with the disease for as long as possible.
Alzheimer’s disease or AD is an incurable disorder of the brain that results in loss of normal brain structure and function. In an AD brain, normal brain tissue is slowly replaced by structures called plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The plaques represent a naturally occurring sticky protein called beta amyloid and in an Alzheimer’s brain, sufferer’s tend to accumulate too much of this protein. Neurofibrillary tangles represent collapsed tau proteins which, in a normal brain along with microtubules, form a skeleton that maintains the shape of the nerve cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, the tau proteins break loose from their normal location and form tangles. Without the support of these molecules, nerve cells collapse and die. As normal brain structure is lost with progression of the disease, brain function also degenerates. Patients afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease display a gradual mental decline. Initially, and most apparently, there is a loss of short-term memory. Eventually, as a patient progresses to later stages of the disease, the brain becomes so damaged that patients can no longer communicate or recognize immediate family or even themselves. They have difficulty walking and standing and frequently fall. In the final stages, they lose bladder and bowel control and have difficulty with swallowing, frequently leaving them malnourished and dehydrated. Eventually, they are forced to remain bedridden and, without the help of life-prolonging measures provided in a hospital, die. However, this level of deterioration is severe and may take as long as twenty years. Because of the disease’s slow progress and its usual later start in a person’s life, a victim of AD will usually die first of natural causes. Under the objectives ...
Cummings, Jeffrey L., Cole, Greg. “Alzheimer Disease.” Journal of the American Medical Association. May 2002: 287-18. Health Source. EBSCOhost. Utica College Lib. 15 Apr 2005. .
There are four main types of dementia with AD being the most widespread form. It ac...
Doctors and researchers are confident that there will soon be a treatment for Alzheimer's. There have been millions who have died or who have progressed too far in their disease. The symptoms` of Alzheimer’s Disease are very hard for the sufferer to deal with. They do not want to rely on a family member to take care of themselves because something is wrong with them. Alzheimer's is a very complex disease. This why scientists have still not found any cure for it. People with Alzheimer's suffer for almost twenty to twenty five years before their death.The worse thing about this disease is the patient does not even remember their family or friends. They also do not release what the actual meaning of life is by the time they die. People suffering from Alzheimer's are emotionally dead long before the physically die.