Alzheimer's Disease Alois Alzheimer was the man to discover the disease, as we know called Alzheimer's disease. He was a Gorman psychiatrist and neuropathologist, and discovered the disease in 1906. In the beginning it was called presenite dementia, (the mental decline caused by physical or physiological factors) and he thought it rarely affected but did affect only younger people.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive irreversible brain disorder with no known cure or cause. How it works? It deteriates and slowly erases the memories of minds of older adults. Some of the effects are memory lose, confusion, impaired judgment, personality changes, and loss of language skills.
Alzheimer's disease causes a gradual decline in three areas known as ABC.
A- Activities in daily life This is when the person can no longer care for themselves, meaning no cooking cleaning and self-grooming.
B- Is for Behavior This when the person moods and personality is altered, and their interest with family and friends changed along with their emotions.
English: Histopathogic image of senile plaques see...
English: PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer'...
English: Diagram of how microtubules desintegrate ...C-is for cognition Thinking reasoning, and realizing are a few under this category. Not being able to remember pets, and family member names goes along with this also.
This is the worst stage, and the hardest for family and friends to cope with.
Approximately 100,000 victims die a year from this, and 360, 000 new cases are diagnosed each year. An estimate of 14 million Americans will have this disease by 2050. In every country where the life expectancy increases so does this disease. By 2020 an estimated 30 million people will be affected by this, and by 2050 45 million will worldwide.
About 10% of the United States Alzheimer's disease affects population over the age of 65.
During the early stages of the disease the person may forget daily events, but they still will be able to recall memories and events in their past as early as their childhood years. Memory loss will increase and worsens in later stages when victims forget events from early years, and they can no longer care for themselves, some people become bedridden. A lot of the people die 8 to 10 years after from chronic disease or infection.
This disease is a mystery to many scientists. It has no cure, and they don't even know how it is caused. But if it is in your family you are more likely to get it then if it wasn't. Carriers of apolpoprorein E gene are more likely to develop the disease also.
Alzheimer's is diagnosed by examining brain tissue under a microscope to see hallmark plagues and tangles, which is only possible after the person has died. The only way you can tell if someone has it is if they rule out strokes, depression, alcoholism, and uses of certain prescription drugs. Another way is special brain scans; this is called a neuro psychological examination.
There is treatment to lesson the process but not a cure yet. Drugs are used to increase brain function and improvement of cells, which is called acetylcholine, and a neurotransmitter that affects memory, that have been approved by the food and drug administration.
This disease is a very scary fact of life, and people are affected by it by themselves and with family members, and coping with disease can be very painful and hard to deal with. This disease for now doesn't have a cure but hopefully for the victims in the future there will be a cure found, and this tragic disease will be able to be cured before it gets out of hand and uncontrollable for family friends and victims.
By:
Auguste Deter. Alois Alzheimer's patient in Novemb...
Healthy brain (bottom) versus brain of a donor wit...
English: Combination of two brain diagrams in one ...