...In “Treatment of Alzheimer’s disease”, the author, Shan, discusses how even though Alzheimer’s disease was identified more than 100 years ago, there is still much to learn and understand about the etiology, pathogenesis, treatment, management, and prevention of the disease. The article highlights that diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease is a difficult task, especially during the earlier stages of the disease. In this article, Alzheimer’s disease is clearly defined at each stage of onset and the prevalence of the disorder is mentioned. The article also notes that effective treatments for Alzheimer’s are impalpable and require further empirical research. The rest of the article reviews the evidence and proposed theories about the course of the disease...
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...There are many significant health issues that come with aging, one of which is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys the memory and thinking skills of its victims. Eventually victims of Alzheimer’s lose their ability to complete tasks of daily living (National Institute on Aging, 2013). The discovery of Alzheimer’s disease was made by Dr. Alois Alzheimer upon an examination of the brain of a woman who died of an unusual mental illness. The doctor saw changes in the tissue of the brain. The National Institute on Aging (2013) website states that the symptoms of the woman’s illness were: memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behaviors. In the examination of the brain, the doctor found abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers. The clumps are amyloid plaques and the tangled bundles of fibers are neurofibrillary tangles. These plaques and tangles are two of the main features that accompany Alzheimer’s disease. A third feature is the loss of connection between neurons (nerve cells) in the brain (National Institute on Aging, 2013). Developing some knowledge of what Alzheimer’s disease is will help people understand what the symptoms of the disease are, how the disease is diagnosed and what treatments can be used to help slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease: Symptoms The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are tricky and can be easily written off as a sign of aging. It is not...
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...a family member that’s alive. Alzheimer’s disease makes this nightmare a reality by taking away someone’s mental ability to perform normal everyday tasks and remember their most important memories. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative, disease that affects the brain and can also profoundly affect you or someone you love. Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disorder that attacks the brain’s nerve cells or neurons. The neurons slowly break their connections with other nerve cells and then begin to slowly die, resulting in memory loss, behavioral changes, and loss in thinking and language skills (About Alzheimer’s, Definition of Alzheimer’s 1). An estimated 5.1 million Americans may have Alzheimer’s disease and half a million Americans under the age of sixty-five have a kind of early onset dementia including Alzheimer’s disease (About Alzheimer’s, Statistics 1)....
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...EFFECTIVENESS OF THE TREATMENTS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE ( First Draft ) BEL 311 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES LECTURER’S NAME MADAM RAFIZAH MOHD RAWIAN SHAFINAS BINTI SAMSUDIN 2010131651 BMD3Ab b SHAFINAS BINTI SAMSUDIN 2010131651 BMD3Ab b PREPARED BY EFFECTIVENESS OF THE TREATMENT OF ALZHERMEIR’S DISEASE Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. According to Howard Crystal & William C. Shiel Jr ( 2005 ), Alzheimer's disease is a slowly progressive disease of the brain that is characterized by impairment of memory and eventually by disturbances in reasoning, planning, language, and perception. Many scientists believe that Alzheimer's disease results from an increase in the production or accumulation of a specific protein (beta-amyloid protein) in the brain that leads to nerve cell death. The likelihood of having Alzheimer's disease increases substantially after the age of 70 and may affect around 50% of persons over the age of 85. Nonetheless, Alzheimer's disease is not a normal part of aging and is not something that inevitably happens in later life. For example, many people live to over 100 years of age and never develop Alzheimer's disease. But, nowadays there are some types of effective treatment that are effective for Alzhermeir’s disease. The management of Alzheimer's disease consists...
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...| | Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. The basics Symptoms Changes in the brain | | Plaques & tangles Research | | Alzheimer's and dementia basics * Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Bottom of Form * Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging, although the greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are 65 and older. But Alzheimer's is not just a disease of old age. Up to 5 percent of people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer's (also known as younger-onset), which often appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s. Learn more: Early Onset Alzheimer's and Risk Factors * Alzheimer's worsens over time. Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over a number of years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimer's, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those with Alzheimer's live an average of eight years after their symptoms become noticeable to others, but survival can range...
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...the increase in the technology that we have, we could not bring back the memories that we lost. With the increase in the technologies, we increase in diseases connected with middle aged people. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is one of the common diseases that is affecting middle-aged people. Although...
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...Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Research advances have enabled detailed understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of the hallmarks of the disease-ie, plaques, composed of amyloid β (Aβ), and tangles, composed of hyperphosphorylated tau. However, as our knowledge increases so does our appreciation for the pathogenic complexity of the disorder. Familial Alzheimer's disease is a very rare autosomal dominant disease with early onset, caused by mutations in the amyloid precursor protein and presenilin genes, both linked to Aβ metabolism. By contrast with familial disease, sporadic Alzheimer's disease is very common with more than 15 million people affected worldwide. The cause of the sporadic form of the disease is unknown, probably because the disease is heterogeneous, caused by ageing in concert with a complex interaction of both genetic and environmental risk factors. This seminar reviews the key aspects of the disease, including epidemiology, genetics, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as recent developments and controversies. 100 years ago, Alois Alzheimer gave a lecture at a congress in Tubingen, Germany, on the first case of the disease that Kraepelin some years later named Alzheimer's disease.1 In this single case. Alzheimer described typical clinical characteristics with memory disturbances and instrumental signs, and the neuropathological picture with miliary bodies (plaques) and dense bundles of fibrils (tangles), which we today...
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...Misty VanderPloeg Professor Staab Psychology April 28, 2012 Prolonging the Inevitable Alzheimer’s disease was named after a German neuropathologist and psychiatrist by the name of Aloysius Alzheimer who is credited with identifying two symptoms of the disease; amyloid plaques and neurofribrillary tangles in the brain. It is important to understand that Alzheimer’s disease is not a type of dementia; it is simply a disease that causes dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is an incurable progressive disease that can take up to twenty years to advance, but typically takes between eight to ten painful years for the Alzheimer’s sufferer and their family. Christian Nordqvist author of What is Alzheimer’s Disease? What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease? states that “During the course of the disease plaques and tangles develop within the structure of the brain. This causes brain cells to die. Patients with Alzheimer’s also have a deficiency in the levels of some vital brain chemicals with are involved with transmission of messages in the brain – neurotransmitters” (1). The disease is typically broken down into three common stages that people experience: mild, moderate, and severe. As well as the duration, the length of each stage can vary depending on the person, as Rosemary Blieszner and Peggy A. Shifflett confirm in their article The effects of Alzheimer’s Disease on Close Relationships Between Patients and Caregivers, “This disease is very unpredictable in terms of duration and nature...
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...Alzheimer’s affects the older generation with a gradual increase of symptoms, while ALS (Lou Gehrings Disease) usually affects adults between the ages of 40-60. In this paper you will learn information regarding the statistics, treatments, and survival rates of each of these chronic diseases. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis better known as ALS, I a serious neurological disease that causes muscle weakness, disability, and eventually death. Worldwide ALS occurs in 1 to 3 people per 100,000. In the vast majority of cases -90 to 95 percent- doctors don’t know yet why ALS occurs. About 5 to 10 percent of all ALS cases are inherited. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. It is the most common cause of dementia –a group of brain disorders that result in the loss of intellectual and social skills. These changes are sever enough to interfere with day to day life. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s are both neurological diseases that affect different parts of the body. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis affects the limbs, while Alzheimer’s affects are in the brain. Initial symptoms of ALS are obvious muscle weakness usually in the foot, leg, or arm, slurred speech, or trouble swallowing. These symptoms can be seen at the onset of ALS, whereas symptoms of Alzheimer’s often go unrecognized and undiagnosed in the early stages, because the first symptoms...
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...Abstract Alzheimer's disease involves cognitive disorders and problems with abstract reasoning in older people mostly. Alzheimer's disease has many behavioural and emotional characteristics which affects the victims of Alzheimer, as well as their families and those who care for them. The exact cause of Alzheimer is still not clear to us, not even after all these years of research. Till now, all we know is that a small proportion of Alzheimer’s disease is inherited, many scientist believe that there is some connections between a person’s environment and genetic make-up. According to statistics, more than 44 million people in the world have Alzheimer disease. By the year 2030, there might be a rise in the number of Alzheimer victims, up to...
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...Did you know that Alzheimer’s disease is the only cause of death in the top 10 in America that cannot be prevented, cured, or slowed? Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. It is the most common form of dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 1 in 3 senior citizens end up getting Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia in their lifetime. And many of those who have Alzheimer’s disease have not been diagnosed. Today I’m going to inform you on how to be able to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease through the causes, symptoms, along with further prevention, medication, and research. Alzheimer’s is a tricky disease to find and understand because there are no direct causes with it. Doctor Alois Alzheimer was the first doctor to identify the first case of Alzheimer’s disease. He realized something was different with a woman’s brain tissue after she had passed away from an unusual mental illness. This woman’s name was Auguste Deter. Her symptoms were memory loss, language problems, and unusual behavior. Scientists have discovered that brain damage beings to start around a decade before the patient shows signs of memory loss. The beginning damage appears to take place in the hippocampus, which is that part of the brain that forms and keeps the memories. As more neurons become damaged, more and more parts of the brain are being affected. At the final stage of Alzheimer’s, the damage is all throughout...
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...with memory loss and eventually impeding on the ability to perform everyday activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association website, 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases are Alzheimer’s patients. Alzheimer's worsens over time. It is a progressive disease, where the symptoms gradually worsen over a period of several years. In its early stages, memory loss is minor. A person might start to forget little things, like if they turned the oven off or momentarily forget how to tie their shoes. When a person suffers from late-stage Alzheimer's, he or she loses the capability to carry on a conversation or respond to his or her environment. Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those who suffer from the disease live an average of eight years after their symptoms have progressed enough that the people around them start to notice. Although somewhere around eight years is the norm, it is not uncommon to hear of people living anywhere from four to 20 years after others notice. A big part of how fast a person declines depends on age and other health conditions. One major thing to remember is that Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging. The greatest known risk factor for this disease is increasing age, which obviously cannot be stopped. The majority of people who suffer from Alzheimer's are 65 and older. Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are caused by damage to brain cells. This damage interferes...
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...Dr. Andrews Many people know someone who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. It is confusing how some people use these names interchangeably. While Alzheimer’s disease and dementia have similar characteristics, the treatment for the disease is based on symptoms as well as how the diseases are acquired. Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia so they are very closely related. (Fraller, 2013) Knowing the slight differences between the two diseases could, in some cases, mean a cure. Both Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are caused by a dysfunction in the brain. In Alzheimer’s disease, there is a loss of brain cells brought on by age. Studies have shown that 10% of all people over the age of 65 and 50% of people over the age of 85 have Alzheimer’s. Out of all those people, only 1% of them inherited the disease. Someone who has experienced multiple head injuries or high insulin levels are also at a greater risk of acquiring Alzheimer’s. On the other hand, dementia is caused by changes to the brain. These changes may be caused by a stroke, brain tumors, or even head injuries. Diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, hyperthyroidism, B12 deficiency, and fluid build-up on the brain have also been known to cause dementia. (Healthwise Incorporated, 2011) Once the causes of the two diseases have been determined, it is important to discuss the symptoms. The similarities between the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are typically what dupe people into thinking...
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...Imagine waking up and not being able to recognize the person sleeping next to you or not remembering your kids names. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. About 5.5 million people live with Alzheimer’s, and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Alzheimer’s is mostly mistaken as a sign of aging, it worsens over time and unfortunately has no cure. Many people tend to believe that Alzheimer’s is a problem for old people, but that is incorrect. A normal healthy way to age is skin becomes more sensitive, hair loss, bone density can be lost, a decrease in sight and hearing. It is common to have some memory loss, slower recall of information, however memory loss...
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...EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE and ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Introduction As defined in 2012 by the American Nurses Association, “nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations. “To deliver the best optimal treatment when performing their duties, nurses are taught to follow evidence-based practices (EBP). Following EBP when dealing with clients especially those affected by Alzheimer’s disease facilitates the nurse in performing his/her main responsibilities that include maintaining health promotion, risk reduction and disease management. Maintaining health promotion From Florence Nightingale era in the 19th century to today’s world, nursing has become a new field where it is just not described “as the action of putting the patient in the best condition for nature to act “(“Healing Environment,”2011). Nursing turned to an immense expertise where maintaining health promotion is a master key. Health promotion favors the enhancement of health and the setting up of plan for a healthy lifestyle and well-being (Potter and Perry, 2011). Examples of health promotion consist of encouraging immunizations and regular checkups. Risk reduction Many complications can be avoided by promoting risk...
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