Alzheimer’s Disease

“Alzheimer 's disease is a brain disease in which damaged and dying brain cells cause mental deterioration over a period of time” (“Alzheimer’s Disease,” 2015). This disease has affected millions of families all across the world, and it is a disease where patients become worse as time goes on. The cause of Alzheimer’s seems to be the buildup of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, while some cases are also linked to genetics (“Alzheimer’s Disease,” 2015). These changes in the brain alter the personality and behavior of the individual. These changes make it difficult to care of a patient with Alzheimer’s, but there are certain qualities one needs to have in order to work with someone who has this disease.

Alzheimer’s disease Holly Salyards Cincinnati State Technical & Community College Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disease which slowly destroys thinking and memory skills. These changes are severe enough to interfere with day to day life. This irreversible disease is the most common cause of dementia amongst the elderly, with an appearance of first symptoms after age 60. In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, noticed some changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness. Her symptoms were comprised of memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior.

One theory regarding the cause of Alzheimer’s disease suggests that this plaque forms because the processes that normally operate to clear away this protein have become defective. Neurofibillary tangles are skeins of another abnormal protein, but the tangle is found inside the nerve cells. The reason why the tangles develop is not known, but the normal processing of protein by the cell seems to be disrupted. These tangles choke the nerve cells and prevent them for working properly. For reasons not well understood, these plaques and tangles take over healthy brain tissue, which devastates the areas of the brain associated with intellectual function.

To discuss this subject we would discuss the most common form of dementia among old people, the Alzheimer's disease. Dementia is a brain disorder, a loss of intellectual function (thinking, remembering, reasoning), which substantially affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities. Alzheimer's disease (AD), a form of progressive, irreversible dementia with no known cause or cure, first described in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, causes damage to the parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language. The consequences of the disease in terms of the patient's lifestyle are often times confused with the natural syndromes of aging. However, AD is not a normal part of aging.

These will be discussed in full later on in the paper. The symptoms of Alzheimer’s are extremely detrimental to the individual whom it affects, as the disease attacks the brain cells and their connections. As the illness progresses, many of the affected brain cells die. In the very beginning stages, many of the symptoms are mistakenly associated simply with the effects of ageing or stress. Issues such as attentiveness, abstract thinking, and mild memory loss which happens to be the most notable of these early symptoms, will all start to appear.

Exploring and researching the cause and progression of this disease, rate at which one deteriorates, ways to slow the disease from progressing, options for coping and living with the disease and more are all avenues to explore throughout this academic report, providing a full understanding of Alzheimer’s/dementia. The history Alzheimer’s Disease goes back further than can be proved as it was not a named disease yet. However in 1906 a German physician, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, specifically identified a collection of brain cell abnormalities as a disease while doing an autopsy of a woman who in the last years of her life and displayed the characteri... ... middle of paper ... ....G. (2008) McGraw-Hill Medical Dictionary for Allied Health. Pg 17 and 91. Feldman, S. Robert .

Alzheimer's Disease: What are we Forgetting? Alzheimer's disease (pronounced Alz'-hi-merz) is a progressive, degenerative disease that affects the brain and results in impaired memory, thinking and behavior. It was first described by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and has been diagnosed in millions of people to this day (1). This disease results, ultimately, in the destruction of the brain and brings new meaning and insights into just how much brain may equal behavior. Alzheimers is a degenerative disease that usually begins gradually, causing a person to have memory lapses in both basic knowledge and simple tasks (7).

There are ma... ... middle of paper ... ...s time in history. In Conclusion, Dementia is the progressive loss of cognitive function. People who suffer from this group of symptoms deal with memory loss, disorientation, and fluctuating feelings. The brain of a person who suffers from Dementia is different in many ways from a healthy brain. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease take a toll on the brain causing shrinkage and tissue loss that accounts for the loss of brain function in some parts.

Though this disease can still occur in elderly men, it is more likely to occur in elderly women. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurologic disease of the brain. This formidable and terrifying disease leads to the irreversible loss of neurons along with the inevitable loss of intellectual abilities, including memory and reasoning (MNT-What is Alzheimer's disease?, 2009). Alzheimer’s disease becomes severe enough to impede social or occupational functioning. This article also stated that Alzheimer’s disease gets worse over time and continues to progress for the rest of an elderly person's life.

Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease that attacks the brain and results in impaired memory, thinking and behavior. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is the lost of thinking, remembering and reasoning so bad it screws up ability to do daily functions and eventually resolves in death. Dr. Alois Alzheimer’s first discovered the disease in 1906. Since then research has developed a deeper understanding of the changes in the brain.