Essay On AlzheimerS Disease Example For Students

Essay On AlzheimerS Disease Alzheimers DiseaseAlzheimers is a disease of the brain that causes a steady decline in memory. This results in dementia, which is loss of intellectual functions severe enough to interfere with everyday life. Alzheimers disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting ten percent of people over 65 years old, and nearly 50 percent of those age 85 or older. My grandmother was diagnosed with probable Alzheimers disease over two years ago. After finding this out, I wanted to know more about this particular disease. Alzheimers disease usually begins gradually, causing a person to forget recent events and to have difficulty performing familiar tasks. How rapidly the disease advances varies from person to person. Communication becomes difficult as the person with Alzheimers struggles to find words, finish thoughts, or follow directions. Eventually, people with Alzheimers become totally unable to care for themselves. My grandma is very close to this point. Scientists are still not for certain what exactly causes Alzheimers disease. Research suggests that the central problem is malfunction and death of nerve cells, but scientists are still working to learn why this happens. Key areas of study focus on biochemical processes and pathways in nerve cells, effects of inflammation, and the influence of genes. Many experts believe that it usually arises form a complex combination of factors. The glutamatergic system seems to be involved in mediating the toxic processes. In the brain, the nerve cells in the part that controls memory and thinking aredamaged, this interrupts the passage of messages between communicating cells. The cells undergo distinctive changes, these are called neuritic plaques (groupsof degenerating nerve cell ends) and neurofibrillary tangles (groups of twistedfilaments which accumulate in previously healthy nerve cells). The cortex (usedfor thinking) of the brain shrinks, the spaces in the center of the brain becomeenlarged causing reduction of the surface area in the brain. Symptoms of ADusually occur in older adults and are the ones most at risk, although people intheir 40s and 5Os may also be affected. The symptoms include a loss ofintellectual capacity, loss of language skills which may include having troublefinding words, poor or decreased judgment, problems with abstract thinking,disorientation in place and time, changes in mood or behavior and changes inpersonality. AD does not discriminate, it affects any race, socio background orsex equally. The classic symptom of forgetfulness is part of the normal agingprocess and usually begins in early middle age, however, normal forget fulnessdiffers from Alzheimers Disease in many important ways. The cause ofAlzheimers Disease is not exactly known. Suspected causes undergoing researchare neurological damage, chemical deficiencies, viruses, environmental toxinsand malfunctions in the bodys disease defense systems and genetics. There isalso evidence of a slightly increased risk of heridity of AD amongst children,brothers and sisters of patients with this disease. It is also important to notethat AD can only be diagnosed 100% after death through an autopsy of theaffected subjects brain tissue. About a third of autopsies turn up a differentdiagnosis and thus family members are encouraged to ask for an autopsy as acontribution to the study of the disease and about the genetics of AD. There isno single clinical test for AD. It is usually diagnosed by ruling out all othercurable or incurable causes of memory loss. A positive diagnosis of this diseasecan only be made by microscopically studying a small piece of brain tis sue afterdeath. The cerebral cortex of an Alzheimer sufferers brain will havecharacteristic abnormalities such as cells marred by plaques and tangles. Aworking diagnosis can be made though through various testing procedures thatinclude a complete physical as well as neurological and psychologicalexaminations. At this time there is no definite cure or treatment for AD,although there are many suppliers of products which claim to help sufferers, butthe products are more like over-priced placebos with no documented evidence ofalleviation of the illness amongst sufferers, but glutamate receptor-selectivedrugs, some antioxidants, nitric oxide synthase inhibitors, calcium channelantagonists, receptor or enzyme inhibitors, and growth factors promise futurehelp in curing this disease. Combinations of drugs that act at different levelsmay also prolong the sufferers life/health. People diagnosed with AlzheimersDisease can live anywhere from 2 to 20 years after memory loss symptoms start tosurf ace. It shortens the sufferers expected life span, but through appropriatecare and medical attention the patients oftenlive for many years. Death cantusually be predicted until the end stages where symptoms are nearing theirworse. Some patients in late or terminal-stage Alzheimers tend to lose weightand have difficulty swallowing, difficulties with bladder control, walking andtalking. They are also known to curl into a fetal position. Sufferers most oftendie through a series of repeated infections such as bladder infections orpneumonia. Although the following estimations are from American literature, asexplained earlier we know that AD has a more or less universal effect amongstthe populations, ratio wise. Alzheimers afflicts approximately 4,000,000Americans and its estimated that one in three of us may have a relative thatwill suffer from this degenerative disease. More than 100,000 die annually whichmakes AD the fourth largest cause of adult death in the US. It is also a verycostl y disease monatary wise in that about half of the patients in nursing homeshave this illness with an estimated $80 billion spent annually on the care of,diagnosis, treatment, etc. People who suffer from AD often require 24-hour careand supervision, this is mostly provided by family and friends in a home. History Of The Computer Industry In America America And The Computer I EssayBibliographyBliss T. V. P Collingridge G. L (1993) A synaptic model of memory: Long-termpotentiation in the hippocampus, Nature 361 31-39 * Clarris H. J. et al (1994)Secretion of nerve growth factor from septum stimulates neurite outgrowth andrelease of the amyloid protein precursor of Alzheimers disease from hippocampalexplants J. Neurosci. Res. 38 248-258 * Disterhoft J. F et al (1994) The calciumrationale in aging and Alzheimers disease Calcium Hypothesis of Aging andDementia, Annual Academy of Science. N.Y. New York 382-405 * Holschier,C (1998)Neurobiology of disease, Academic Press 5 121-159 * http://www.ahaf.org/alzdis/about/adabout.htm* http://www.alzheimers.com/ * http://www.zarcrom.com/users/yeartorem/index4.htmlHealth Care