Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is closely related to old age and is the most common form of dementia. It is very different from other common diseases of old age, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and lung disease. Alzheimer’s disease affects the most important part, the brain, which controls all the functions and movements of the human body. Alzheimer’s disease affects an individual’s memory as it is a neurological disorder that causes the destruction of brain cells resulting in memory loss and cognitive decline. It is not something that you can contract from another individual like the flu; this disease is something that starts progressing as an individual ages. Alzheimer’s is said to affect individuals who are 65 years or older, but it might have an onset earlier around the age of 60. Alzheimer’s is a major health issue as it affects 50 to 60% of the old age population (Blennow).
Causes of Alzheimer’s disease
Earlier Alzheimer’s was perceived as the most common cause of dementia rather than a form of dementia. With the development of technology and new discoveries, we have been able to develop a good understanding of the disease. “However, microscopic examination reveals the critical features of the disease — a cerebral cortex peppered with neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. AD can therefore be said to be the dementia associated with these histopathologic abnormalities (Munoz).” When neurofibrillary tangles, that are a type of protein combined with neuronal cytoplasm, are present they result in the failure of neural cytoskeleton maintenance. Even though an adequate number of neurofibrillary tangles are formed with aging, but when this number increases to a great amount, it results in the ...
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...or caregivers, especially family members to provide care for their loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s because they need to learn new skills as it puts them in a highly demanding situation with no fixed-time schedule. According to a study done by Hornillos in 2012, “Caregiver SG research can already be considered an ‘old’ topic. Despite the interest in the issue and the many changes in methodology, the actual state of knowledge regarding support groups’ effects and mechanisms is more or less the same as it was about 20 years ago. First, there is barely any explicit agreement on what a SG really is, other than the general idea that caregivers go there to help each other tackle the difficult issues arising from the caregiving experience. How this help is provided and how it is effectively portrayed is an issue that, after review of existing literature, remains unclear.”
Informal supports, such as aid for housekeeping and running errands, are crucial to maintaining the lifestyle of individuals with Alzheimer’s in the community; however, the disease’s erosion of physical, cognitive, and communicative abilities often creates tremendous strain for family caregivers. Individuals and family caregivers dealing with Alzheimer’s often experience increasing social isolation as the disease’s progression undermines both mobility and the capacity for meaningful and appropriate engagement with the community (Banerjee et al., 2003). A number of studies have documented the physical and mental health costs borne by unsupported caregivers, and the link between caregiver stress and the institutionalization of their ill family members (Andren & Elmstahl, 2005; Banerjee et al., 2003). Taken together, the stress and isolation of dealing with Alzheimer’s disease undermine the health and quality of life of everyone involved, eventually precipitating institutionalization.
Butler, R. (2008). The Carers of People with Dementia. BMJ: British Medical Journal , 336, 1260-1261.
(Davidson, F. G.) Due to the nature of dementia being a neuropsychological disorder, those affected by the disease tend to look like they will not require much care, which, in reality, they often require more care than the caregiver originally expected, leading to stress and burnout. Another effect caused by this can be the caregiver blaming themselves by feeling like they are failing to give proper care, which, in reality, can often be very far from the truth. If the caregiver does not receive help from anyone else, the task of watching over the victim becomes a daunting twenty for hour task. Sometimes, the caregiver won’t be allowed quality sleep. Over 66 percent of home caregivers suffer from some form of psychological or physical illness. The most common illness that is resulted from giving care to Alzheimer’s disease is depression. The caregiver needs to monitor their emotional well-being as well as the well-being as the person that they are giving care to. Usually, giving care to those with dementia is actually more stressful than giving care to those with cancer. When the caregiver is a family member and not a professional, the emotional toll is often even greater. It is important for caregivers to remember that they need to take care of themselves first and
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
performance that involves, but is not limited to, a loss in at least 2 of the
Alzheimer’s is a result from a combination of factors that cause progressive brain deterioration that affects the memory and behavior of an individual. There are two known risk factors. The first risk factor is age. Alzheimer’s usually affects people older than 60, and rarely affects those younger than 40. The average age
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.
Alzheimer’s disease is a serious disease which causes people to behave in a challenging way for their family and caregivers to manage. These behaviours are caused by damage to the brain that leads to psychological and functional impairment. Due to this impairment the people with AD are often neglected and labelled by the society. Family caregivers play a massive role in the care of their loved ones with AD. Patients and family caregivers often experience stress in dealing with all the obstacles that Alzheimer’s disease put them through.
Alzheimer’s disease, named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, is a disease that is on the rise in America and the rest of the world. People should learn as much as they want about this disease, because as you age, your chances of becoming an Alzheimer’s Disease, or AD, patient increases. It is estimated that approximately 3 percent of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 have the illness, and more than half of all people over age 85 have the ailment.
Alzheimer's disorder is a mental disorder that affects your brain, and in particular the disorder affects the memory part of your brain. The disorder slows down the memory section of your brain, and as a result the number one symptom of Alzheimer's is memory loss. The disorder usually doesn't affect younger people, but instead affects people that are older than the age of sixty. The disorder can get so serious that the patient could loss there of about everything that has ever happened in their life. Patients usually loss their memory of their childhood during the most severe, intense, and last stage of the disorder. Alzheimer's disorder can also have a drastic effect on the patient's family, because during the disorder the patient can forget about their entire family.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, terminal, degenerative brain disease. It is the fourth leading cause of death in adults and currently affects over four million people in the United States. This number is expected to increase over the next several years as the baby boomers age, until it reaches fourteen million by the year 2025.
Thesis/Preview Statement – Alzheimer’s disease (AD) causes a decline in brain function, it destroys healthy nerve cells. Today, we have discussed Causes, Symptoms, and Diagnosis of AD.
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 ...
There is a 5 million estimate of the carers in the UK and figures are foreseen to upscale for the next 40 years to 9 million (O’ Dowd, 2007). With this high number of carers, for whom the carers can ask for support during times when difficulty arises in relation with taking care of people with dementia.