Alzheimer’s Disease Research Paper Essay

AbstractAlzheimers unhealthiness is the most common bring in of dementia in elderly individuals. Currently, 4.5 million pile in the coupled States approximately have Alzheimers disease. (Burns) Alzheimers disease presents the victim with a sharp decline in memory, language, visuospatial perception, executive functioning and decision-making. Because this disease is so jolting on peoples individualality, behavioural and psychiatric symptoms ar frequently present in Alzheimers disease. The impact Alzheimers disease has on health cargon is significant and estimated to cost $100 zillion dollars per year and predicted to rise as it is a demand to find new medication and the number of Alzheimers disease individual rise. (Burns) There is medication available, and there is currently no cure, the medications that are given have symptoms that do not alter the nix progression of the disease.Alzheimers disease is defined as progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the mavens ne rve cells and neurons resulting in a loss of memory, thinking, language skills, and behavioral changes. (Burns) Alzheimers disease is characterized by cognitive dysfunction, psychiatric symptoms, behavioral disturbances, and difficulty performing daily activities. Alzheimers disease is currently the 6th leading cause of death in the coupled States and presently 4.5 million Americans are living with it. Alzheimers disease is the leading cause of dementia in elder individuals. (Burns) as yet though there is no cure for Alzheimers disease, the health care costs are extremely high, being just over 100 billion dollars per year. The hopefulness of the development of a cure or new therapies becomes more desperate all year for new advances in the future. (Burns)The symptoms of Alzheimers disease in every individual vary the disease can be extremely severe and other quantifys slightly mild. Because Alzheimers disease is progressive it advances as time goes on, it starts off as the indivi dual becomes forgetful and looses a small amount of memory and continues to severe dementia and loosing memory completely. The cognitive dysfunction of a person with Alzheimers disease includes memory loss, language difficulties, and executive dysfunction, which consists of a loss of higher level planning and intellectual coordination skills. (Burns) The psychiatric symptoms and behavioral disturbances can be anything from depression and agitation to hallucinations. The psychiatric symptoms of Alzheimers disease can also be collectively termed as non-cognitive symptoms. (Burns)The general symptoms of memory loss is always the original symptom of a majority of the cases of Alzheimers disease. The gradual onset of memory loss has the same symptoms as normal aging, because ageing shows symptoms of some dementia as well, this can understandably become confusing to diagnose, and however Alzheimers disease is not a normal part of aging. (Burns) The onset of Alzheimers disease is dodgy a nd emerges with a mild loss of memory and continues on with difficulty in finding the right word to go along with sentences. A diagnoses occurs only when the symptoms intercede significantly with everyday life such as social and work functions.Personal and emotional changes within the individual are very common for people who have Alzheimers disease. Major depressive disorder occurs in 20-35% of cases, while anxiety reaches 15-25% of people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. (Burns) Every 67 seconds someone in the United States develops Alzheimers disease. Women seem to get his the hardest with this disease. In a womens 60s, the estimated bump for developing Alzheimers is 1 in 6 and two thirds of Americans with Alzheimers disease are women. (Burns) Not only are women more likely to have Alzheimers, women are also more likely to be caregivers of those with Alzheimers disease.Alzheimers disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain. Over time, the brain shrinks dramatically because of this, affecting nearly all of its functions, especially the memory. The cerebral cortex of the brainshrivels up and damages areas involved in thinking, planning, and remembering. (Fackelmann) Shrinkage is especially threatening in the hippocampus, which is the area that forms new memories. The ventricles, which are the fluid-filled spaces within the brain, grow large to fill in the places that have shriveled up.The tissue within an Alzheimers patient has fewer nerve cells and synapses than a healthy brain. Nerve cells and synapses are what drop messages throughout the brain they are crucial to the biological computations that make up perception and thought. The dead nerve cells contain tangles, which are made up of reprobate strands of another protein. The small clumps can clock the synapse and can activate the immune system to trigger inflammation. (Fackelmann)The plaques and tangles spread throughout the cortex in a sure pattern as Al zheimers disease progresses. The rate of the progression of the tangles and plaques within the brain varies significantly. (Fackelmann) People with Alzheimers disease live an average of 8 years, yet some individuals can survive up to 20 years. In a severely advanced Alzheimers disease most of the cortex is severely damaged. (Fackelmann) This is where the brain had shrunk dramatically because of widespread cell death. In this stage, individuals lose their ability to communicate, recognize their family and loved ones, and to care for themselves in their daily activities.The cause of Alzheimers disease is un cognise, however researchers have linked several risk factors with Alzheimers disease such as an increasing age, family history, head injury (anti-inflammatory drugs have been associated as a diminution of risk), depression, hypertension, high cholesterol, low physical and cognitive activity, diabetes, diseases that cause mutations of chromosomes 1, 14, and 21, ApoE genotype, and individuals diagnosed with down syndrome eventually develops the neurological symptoms of Alzheimers disease. (Fackelmann)The genetic contribution to Alzheimers disease is a risk. The risk for the first degree of relatives of people with the disease is estimated at 10-40% higher than unrelated people. (Whalley) The fact that monozygotic twins (twins who share 100% of their genetic material) have a higher concordance rate than dizygotic twins indicates that there is a significant geneticcomponent to Alzheimers disease. (Whalley) Because of the risks stated above, researches suggest that environmental factors are also a contribution to the diagnoses of Alzheimers disease. Environmental factors is confirmed by the fact that the strongest association is not true across all races 50% of clean-living patients with Alzheimers disease do not carry an e4 allele (ApoE genotype), which is a significant risk in getting Alzheimers disease. (Whalley)The cure for Alzheimers disease is uncertain and is mainly focused on therapeutic treatments that help some dementia and other symptoms associated with it. For clinical reasons, non-drug interventions should be used initially, especially if the symptoms are not causing stress or placing the individual at risk to themselves or to others. If non-drug remedial interventions have no effect, cholinesterase inhibitors are the conventional drug treatment of extract for Alzheimers disease. Cholinesterase inhibitors have a moderate beneficial symptoms associated with the drug.The drug modifies symptoms in the minority of people with Alzheimers disease because it is nicely tolerated in the majority of individuals. Memantine is a drug that is a glutamatergic antagonist that trials have found effective in individuals that have severe dementia, however it is restricted to those in clinical trials. Cholinesterare inhibitors and memantine are known to produce little identifiable improvements in the activities of daily life. Non-drug approac hes are not effective in helping memory loss, even though there are therapeutic techniques that help retain memory and can offer support for people with mild dementia.SourcesBurns, A. Alzheimers Disease. British Medical Journal, 338, 467-471. Retrieved June 2, 2014 Fackelmann, K. Forcasting Alzheimers Disease. Science News, 149, 312-313. Retrieved June 2, 2014 Whalley, L. genetic science of Alzheimers Disease. British Medical Journal (clinical research edition), 1556. Retrieved June 2, 2014