Looking Into Alzheimers Disease to Better Underst Essays

Looking Into Alzheimer's Disease to Better Underst Essays Looking Into Alzheimer's Disease to Better Understand Vasant Patel Burlington County Community College Author's Note This paper was prepared for Psychology 101, Section 600, taught by Professor Jeffrey Dean. Abstract This essay gives an insight on the world's most common epidemic discovered by a German psychiatrist, Alois Alzheimer: Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is a form of dementia where brain disorders impact lives. Alzheimer's disease brings forth many symptoms that can shake up people's lifestyles and cause disruptions between the victims' families. It affects memory loss, difficulty in concentration and thinking, and decision-making. It is caused by plaques that can damage and destroy brain cells. This essay goes more in depth in the cause and treatment of Alzheimer's disease as well as medications involved and the different ways to cope with Alzheimer's disease. Is it common for people to misplace their possessions? Since childhood, people have the tendency to forget their homework or lose track of answers when given a test or exam because of pressure and nervousness. As age progresses, people begin to have days where they misplace their belongings or leave things behind. Everyone knows that as people get older, their memories lose its sharpness that was once visible at a younger age. Many people think that leaving things behind or forgetting something is common as age progresses. However, this may not be the case. Frequent occurrences of forgetting things may be just the beginning of Alzheimer's disease. People may confuse Alzheimer's to not be dementia. However, Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia that results in memory loss and proper cognition. Walker, Salek, and Bayer (1998) in "A Review of Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease" state that "Dementia is the global impairment of higher cortical function including memory, the cap acity to solve the problems of day-to-day living, the performance of learned perceptuo-motor skills, the correct use of social skills, and control of emotion reactions, in the absence of gross clouding of consciousness" (Walker, Salek, and Bayer, 1998, p. 500). Similarly, Alzheimer's disease deals with impairment of memory, cognition, and motor and social skills. The disease brings forth many symptoms that can make lives difficult for many victims. In addition, the disease has no cure at all. People have to live with it for the rest of their lives and undergo constant tests and observations so that their doctors can record their progression of the disease. Although the cause of Alzheimer's disease is unknown, there are a few factors that play part in the development of the disease. Alzheimer's disease causes changes in the brain years before the symptoms even occur. Family history, age, and genes are few of the many factors that begin the Alzheimer's disease. There are three known types of Alzheimer's disease: early-onset, familial, and late-onset. Early-onset disease is rare and occurs in people between the ages 30 and 50. Although this form of disease is uncommon, it worsens quickly. Familial Alzheimer's is inherited and in Yaso Shan's (2013) "Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, she says, "in affected families, members of at least two generations have had AD," (Shan, 2013, p.34). Late-onset Alzheimer's disease occurs after the age of 60 and is more common than early-onset Alzheimer's disease. It is rarely runs in families but if family history of Alzheimer's disease is found, then there is more risk that people may develop the disea se. Right now, only one gene, apolipoprotein E (ApoE) has been linked with this type of disease. However, the percentage for people to carry this gene is quite low. Although the cause of Alzheimer's disease is still unclear, its effect on the brain is not. The disease slowly damages brain cells leading to brain and cell shrinkage. Plaques and tangles are two abnormalities that are considered to play part in the cause of the Alzheimer's disease. In "Living Longer, Often with Dementia, McFadden (2013) further explains, "As plaques and tangles accumulate, nerve cells in the brain die, especially in parts of the brain responsible for memory and problem-solving an decision-making" (McFadden, 2013, p. 6). Plaques, also known as beta-amyloid, are protein clumps that damage and destroy brain cells. Although the actual effect of plaques on Alzheimer's is unknown, it is a possibility. Lastly, brain cells need internal support for nutrients to