Lost Minds.

Lost Minds:

A Study of Alzheimer's DiseaseAlzheimer's Disease is one of the most common diseases among elderly people today. Alzheimer's creates emotional and financial catastrophe for many American families every year. It affects nearly 4 million people in the United States. Alzheimer's Disease is the fourth leading cause of adult death in the United States, and nearly 90 billion dollars go towards Alzheimer's research each year, most of this money is funded largely by Medicare and Medicaid, but the government funds some (Medical...). Many elderly people are thought to be crazy, people think the strain of their lives has been too much for their minds, when in fact the real problem may be a serious condition called Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's Disease is a degenerative brain disease. It is caused by a slow break down of the brain cells.

Alois Alzheimer, a German physician, first discovered Alzheimer's Disease in 1906. The first recorded case of Alzheimer's Disease was a 55-year-old woman.

Healthy brain (bottom) versus brain of a donor wit...

English: Enzymes act on the APP (Amyloid precursor...

Auguste Deter. Alois Alzheimer's patient in Novemb...

She was admitted to the mental asylum where Alzheimer worked when she was 51 and slowly deteriorated over her 4 years there. After her death, Alzheimer performed an autopsy in which he found a small, shrunken brain. This was the start of Alzheimer's research. Since it's discovery, Alzheimer's Disease hasn't evolved much. It's much more common now and the symptoms are slightly enhanced, but the disease is relatively the same. The number of people with Alzheimer's Disease is expected to increase dramatically as the baby boomers age (Davis). Some scientists believe that Alzheimer's Disease may be caused by a mutation of a gene on chromosome 14, this mutation is related to about 8% of all Alzheimer's cases (Alzheimer's). Alzheimer's patients also have an excess of aluminum in their brain tissues, which is linked to the disease and they lack hootropic...