Alzheimer's Disease Research Paper

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Symptoms, Causes, & Treatments of Alzheimer’s Disease
Kitara Washington
Florida State College at Jacksonville

Symptoms, Causes, & Treatments of Alzheimer’s Disease
Imagine getting into your car and driving to the neighborhood supermarket that you have been driving to for the past 20 years. Suddenly, you get to a red light and realized that you have driven 5 miles past the store. Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017). Every 66 seconds someone in the US develops the disease (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017). The prevention of Alzheimer’s disease is a major public health challenge, but several promising therapies targeting p-amyloid have failed in the late-stage …show more content…

Alzheimer’s the most common type of dementia (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017). Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive declines in cognitive and functional abilities (Xie, Oremus, & Gaebel, 2011). In comparison, Alzheimer’s Association’s website (2017) defines Alzheimer’s disease as a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. As a certified nursing assistant (CNA) working in a nursing home, I gained knowledge about the way AD affected people. Just like most people, I believed Alzheimer’s disease was a normal part of aging. However, Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging, and it is not just a disease of old age (Alzheimer’s Association, …show more content…

They include memory loss that disrupts daily life, challenges in planning or solving problems, confusion with time or place, trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships, new problems with words in speaking or writing, misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps, decreased or poor judgement, withdrawal from work or social activities, changes in mood and personality, and difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work, or at leisure (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017). In comparison, Xie, Oremus, & Gaebel (2011) states AD symptoms begin with memory loss and progress to an inability to perform basic activities of daily living. According to Fontana and Smith (1989), Many of the indicators of the disease, such as limited cognitive ability, simple thinking without understanding of extenuating factors, frequent inattentiveness, difficulty in separating fantasy from reality, and egocentric behavior describe much of what adults commonsensically think of as childlike

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