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Alzheimer’s Disease |
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It starts with minor memory lapses, like getting people’s
names confused or forgetting where you put the keys to the car. At this
stage, it’s nothing more than an old running joke that other family members
get a laugh out of during get-togethers. But then, as time goes, it begins
to affect other aspects of your life, including work, and disrupts daily
routine. Pretty soon, you’ll find yourself wondering how to flush the
toilet, figuring out what the switch on the wall is for, and countless
menial tasks that you used to take for granted. Or, you’d wake up one
morning and find that you can’t see anything. Panicking with the certainty
that you have gone blind, things become more eerie when the wife tells you
that your eyes are closed. You forgot to open it. You forgot how to.
The disorder is called Azheimer’s disease, and it affects millions (4.5,
according to the most recent study) of people over the age of 65.
Scientifically speaking, Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, a brain
disorder that seriously affects a person’s ability to carry out daily
activities. The disease starts to manifest its symptoms after the age of 60.
The older a person gets, the worse the symptoms become.
During the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, the parts of the brain that control
thought, memory, and language are affected. At this moment, scientists have
yet to discover what triggers Alzheimer’s disease and the cure, but
countless research is being done and have been successful in helping
patients with this condition cope.
How Alzheimer’s Disease Got Its Name
Alzheimer’s disease was first discovered in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer
(hence, the name). Dr. Alzheimer had a woman patient who died of an unusual
mental illness. While studying her condition, the doctor noticed changes in
the patient’s brain tissue, such as abnormal clumps (known as amyloid
plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (called neurofibrillary tangles).
Years later, these plaques and tangles in the brain are considered as common
symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Other signs of Alzheimer’s disease that later scientists discovered include
dead nerve cells in the memory and cognitive areas of the brain, disrupted
connections between nerve cells, and low levels of neurochemicals, all of
which result in impaired thinking and memory.
Treatment
As mentioned, there is no cure yet for Alzheimer’s disease.
Additionally, what treatment options are available do not
guarantee a halt in disease progression. How fast or how slow
the disease progresses vary from patient to patient, but the
average is that patients with Alzheimer’s disease generally live
from eight to ten years after they are diagnosed. If, however,
the patient is diagnosed in the early and middle stages of
Alzheimer’s disease, there are medications that may help prevent some of the symptoms from becoming worse. |
| This article
is provided courtesy of Roxanne Courtmanch. Please visit
www.thehelpingcircle.com for more articles on Alzheimers
as well as many other topics that may be of interest to you. |
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Alzheimer Articles
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Alzheimer’s Association
Alzheimer’s disease is a dreaded disease that affects the cognitive
functions of the brain.
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Alzheimer’s Cures
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain illness that causes the victim
to become confused and lose his cognitive functions. |
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Alzheimer’s Disease
It
starts with minor memory lapses, like getting people’s names confused or
forgetting where you put the keys to the car. |
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Alzheimer’s Eye Test
Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of
people worldwide. In the United States alone, 4.5 million people are
experiencing memory loss,
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Alzheimer’s History
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia (a brain disorder
that seriously affects the person’s memory,
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Alzheimer’s Nursing Homes
We always want what’s best for our family. And we think that
no one can take care of our loved one quite as well as we can.
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Alzheimer’s Research
Dementia is the collective name for a broad
category of brain disorders, sharing more or less the same common symptom of
progressive
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Alzheimer’s Test
Experts say that there are about 4 million people in the United States that
exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Causes of Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease is a complex brain disorder that results
in the gradual degeneration of most of the mental functions of
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Early Onset Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia (a
neuropathological disorder affecting many cognitive functions of the brain)
commonly
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