FREE ESSAY ON ALZHEIMERS DISEASE

ALZHEIMERS DISEASE

Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive, degenerative disease that
attacks the brain and results in impaired memory, thinking and behavior (Internet). It is
a degenerative disease affecting nerve cells of the frontal and temporal lobes of the
cerebrum of the brain. The disease is the major cause of presenile dementia (i.e., the
loss of mental faculties not associated with advanced age) and is thought to be the
largest single cause of senile dementia as well (Britannica, 306). It causes the
connections between cells to become ineffective and the cells themselves to shutdown and
eventually die (Davies, 1). Alzheimer's is a progressive, irreversible, fatal neurologic
disorder that affects an estimated 4 million American adults. It is estimated by
2040,approximately 14 million Americans will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.
Approximately 9% of the population older than 55 years and 20% of those older than 85
years have Alzheimer's Disease. The duration of AD averages 2 to 10 years but can be up
to 20 years. By 1992, Alzheimer's Disease was the fourth leading cause of death among
adults (more than 100,000 American deaths per year). It is projected that the number of
people with Alzheimer's Disease will triple in the next 50 years. This epidemic of
dementia is not confined to sex, race, social, or economic class. The public knows this
disorder as "senility", although the term Alzheimer's is becoming more common (Rosdahl,
1356). According to a quote from Hasselbring " Alzheimer's disease." Medical Self-Care
53- 57,January-February, 1986, a 61-year-old woman in early stages of Alzheimer's disease
stated, "My mind goes to an empty and horrible place. When I come back, I'm in a room
full of strangers. I fell so lost and afraid." Many Alzheimer's patients echo these
sentiments. The disease is frightening and disabling (1356). Alois Alzheimer, a German
neuropathologist, originally described the disease in 1906. In the autopsy of a
55-year-old patient who had died with severe dementia, Alzheimer noted the presence in
the brain of two abnormalities (Britannica, 306). Recent studies have shown that in the
autopsies of the brain of people who have died from Alzheimer's, there is much higher
concentration of aluminum than is normal (Weiner, 17). Accounting for about half of all
dementia cases, Alzheimer's is more common in certain groups. Women are at higher risk,
so are those who have a first-degree relation with the disease, or a history of head
trauma (RN magazine, 26). Unfortunately, many people fail to recognize that these
symptoms indicate something is wrong. They may mistakenly assume that such behavior is a
normal part of the aging process; it isn't. Or, symptoms may develop gradually and go
unnoticed for a long time. Sometimes people refuse to act even when they know something
is wrong. It's important to see a physician when you recognize these symptoms. Only a
physician can properly diagnose the person's condition, and sometimes are reversible.
Even if the diagnosis is Alzheimer's disease, help is available to learn how to care for
a person with dementia and where to find assistance. Ten warning signs to watch for are:
(1) memory loss, (2) difficulty performing familiar tasks, (3) problems with language,
(4) disorientation of time and place, (5) poor or decreased judgement, (6) problems with
abstract thinking, (7) misplacing things, (8) changes in mood or behavior, (9) changes in
personality, (10) loss of initiative (Internet). Typical problems that should alert us
that a person needs some kind of help are repeated car accidents, getting lost, losing
things and not recalling the previous day (Davidson, 13). Symptoms of the illness
represent deficits in many areas of how a person remembers and thinks. For instance,
problems with memory may be manifested as forgetting names, dates, places, whether a bill
has been paid for, or something said over and over. Intellectual abilities are lost
eventually. Reasoning with the affected person is no longer a successful way to
understand and deal with his problems. Judgement about common everyday situations is
drastically diminished. The individual's capacity to express himself verbally gradually
shrinks. Neither is he able to comprehend what others say to him. As the disease
progresses, he may gradually lose the ability to speak. Psychiatric symptoms such as
delusions and hallucinations can occur. The person can become anxious, restless,
agitated, and may even appear to be depressed. His personality will change. In fact, he
may not seem to be the same person (Gruetzner, 9). Alzheimer's disease begins insidiously
and progresses slowly but inexorably, until the sufferer cannot attend to the simplest
details of self-care and may not even remember his or her name. Although the symptoms may
vary from patient to patient and from day to day in an individual, there are certain
common features in all patients, and the disease follows a somewhat predictable path.
Initially, the victim may just exhibit a lack of energy, drive, and initiative, and
neither he nor his family may be aware that anything is really wrong. The individual may
just avoid new challenges and seek refuge in familiar situations. For example, he may
want to visit only family members and close, old friends rather than go to new places and
meet new people. However, with time, greater changes in mental function and behavior
begin to appear, and the disease can traditionally be divided into three clinical stages.
The individual will forget the names of persons well known to him; he will also be unable
to remember where he puts carious objects, such as the car keys or his wallet, or what
day of the week, month or year it is. He will start forgetting to attend appointments he
has made or get lost trying to find places that were once very familiar. In the
beginning, such episodes of forgetfulness may just be minor annoyances to the individual
and his family, and he may still be able to function reasonably well. Eventually though,
lapses of memory will become debilitating (Weiner, 27). The symptoms of Alzheimer's
disease include gradual declines in memory, learning, and attention, and judgement;
disorientation in time and space: word-finding and communication difficulties: and
changes in personality. These symptoms may be somewhat vague at first and mimic mental
illness or stress-related problems. For example, an executive may not be managing as well
as he once did, making bad decisions with increasingly frequency and missing deadlines.
Insidiously but inexorably, the changes become unable to add two numbers together.
Similarly, a previously talented hostess may no longer be able to set a table. The
personality of the patient may change markedly: an outgoing, vivacious person may become
quiet and withdrawn; a gentle, caring partner may become aggressive and indifferent.
Emotional symptoms, including depression, paranoia, and agitation, may occur
intermittently. During the course of the illness, the patient's needs for care escalate.
Of the four-plus million Americans with dementia, one-third are so impaired that they can
no longer manage without assistance in the simplest daily routine activities of eating,
dressing, grooming, and toileting (Aronson, 6). Alzheimer's disease appears to run in
families. Immediate ("first-order") relatives of a patient with the disease have a great
risk of developing the disorder themselves. But the incidence of the disease as it occurs
in both identical and fraternal sets of twins, though somewhat elevated, is not
convincingly high enough to "prove" a hereditary link. It is thought that the disease may
be inherited in some families as an autosomal (any chromosome other than those that
determine the sex) dominant gene ( that is, the gene located