Alzheimer’s Disease Research Paper Essay

gypAlzheimers malady is the most usual cause of dementia in elderly individuals. Currently, 4.5 million people in the get together States approximately maintain Alzheimers affection. (Burns) Alzheimers disease bewilders the victim with a sharp pooh-pooh in memory, language, visuospatial perception, administrator functioning and decision-making. Because this disease is so harsh on peoples personality, behavioral and psychiatrical symptoms atomic number 18 frequently present in Alzheimers disease. The impact Alzheimers disease has on health c are is signifi send packingt and estimated to cost $100 billion dollars per year and predicted to swot as it is a demand to find new medication and the take of Alzheimers disease individual rise. (Burns) There is medication available, however in that respect is currently no cure, the medications that are given save symptoms that do non alter the negative progression of the disease.Alzheimers disease is defined as progressive, deg enerative disorder that attacks the brains nerve electric cadres and neurons resulting in a loss of memory, thinking, language skills, and behavioral changes. (Burns) Alzheimers disease is characterized by cognitive disfunction, psychiatric symptoms, behavioral disturbances, and difficulty performing daily activities. Alzheimers disease is currently the 6th lede cause of death in the United States and presently 4.5 million Americans are living with it. Alzheimers disease is the leading cause of dementia in elder individuals. (Burns) Even though on that point is no cure for Alzheimers disease, the health care costs are extremely racy, being just over 100 billion dollars per year. The hopefulness of the victimisation of a cure or new therapies becomes more(prenominal) despe consider all(prenominal) year for new advances in the future. (Burns)The symptoms of Alzheimers disease in all individual vary the disease can be extremely unholy and other times slightly mild. Because Alz heimers disease is progressive it advances as time goes on, it starts off as the individual becomes forgetful and looses a lower-ranking 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 command symptoms of memory loss is always the first symptom of a absolute 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 distinctly become confusing to diagnose, and however A lzheimers disease is not a normal part of aging. (Burns) The onset of Alzheimers disease is sly and emerges with a mild loss of memory and continues on with difficulty in determination the right word to go along with sentences. A diagnoses occurs yet when the symptoms deputise significantly with everyday life such as social and arrive at functions.Personal and emotional changes within the individual are very common for people who pay Alzheimers disease. Major depressive disorder occurs in 20-35% of cases, maculation anxiety reaches 15-25% of people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. (Burns) Every 67 seconds mortal in the United States develops Alzheimers disease. Women seem to get his the hardest with this disease. In a womens 60s, the estimated try 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 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- take awayed spaces within the brain, grow larger to fill in the places that have shriveled up.The tissue within an Alzheimers affected role has fewer nerve cells and synapses than a healthy brain. Nerve cells and synapses are what canalise 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 twisted strands of another protein. The small clumps can clock the synapse and can actuate the immune sys tem to trigger inflammation. (Fackelmann)The plaques and tangles spread throughout the cortex in a predictable pattern as Alzheimers disease progresses. The rate of the progression of the tangles and plaques within the brain varies significantly. (Fackelmann) People with Alzheimers disease die hard an average of 8 years, but 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 unknown, however researchers have tie in several risk factors with Alzheimers disease such as an change magnitude age, family history, head injury (anti-inflammatory drugs have been associated as a reduction of risk), depression, hypertension, high cholest erol, 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 neurologic 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 orthogonal 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 in that respect is a significant geneticcomponent to Alzheimers disease. (Whalley) Because of the risks stated above, researches rede 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 crosswise all races 50% of white patients with Alzheimers disease do not carry an e4 a llele (ApoE genotype), which is a significant risk in getting Alzheimers disease. (Whalley)The cure for Alzheimers disease is uncertain and is mainly center 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 tautness 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 choice for Alzheimers disease. Cholinesterase inhibitors have a moderate beneficial symptoms associated with the drug.The drug modifies symptoms in the nonage 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. Choline sterare inhibitors and memantine are known to produce little identifiable improvements in the activities of daily life. Non-drug approaches 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 exam daybook, 338, 467-471. Retrieved June 2, 2014 Fackelmann, K. Forcasting Alzheimers Disease. Science News, 149, 312-313. Retrieved June 2, 2014 Whalley, L. Genetics of Alzheimers Disease. British Medical Journal (clinical research edition), 1556. Retrieved June 2, 2014