The Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia, if referred to statistics 60-80%

(Lewis, Heitkemper, Dirksen, 2004) and roughly 5.2 million people in the United States has it while around 25 million worldwide. According to “www.alz.org” it is the sixth most leading cause of death. This syndrome generally, but not only, affects people who are elderly (60+). Alzheimer’s is a gradual process, and it can be made easier on the person by giving treatment, though there is no known current cure.

This syndrome is named after a German psychiatrist named Alois Alzheimer. Alzheimer also made studies of dead people. He first started to study this disease when he saw a 51 year old woman named Auguste. Auguste showed many of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s (which then was unknown) which Alzheimer obsessively studied over the five years of the rest of her life. He then studied the brain of Auguste after she died to conclude that the disease blocked of neurons of the brain to communicate with each other. Alzheimer made his findings published to the world in 1906. Circa 1910, his findings were used to diagnose people all over the world.

Because Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia, knowing what dementia is helps us understand the disease better. Dementia is a long-term and/or gradual syndrome that affects the brain and thus making the person lose consistency in many of their every day activity like speaking and logical mathematics and eventually prove that the person is not capable of taking care of him or herself.

Alzheimer’s currently doesn’t have a proven cause, although scientists have thought that it might be due to “Genetic Influences, Defective Proteins, Biochemical Imbalances (South Deerfield, Mass, 1985),” or maybe even a Virus that is slowly affecting the brain. Even though the exact cause is not known, many believe that maintaining a healthy lifestyle by keeping fit, mentally and physically, is an important factor to avoid this disease. Building up immunity by eating different kinds of food is a suggested way to stay healthy during the disease.

Dementia is commonly found in patients who have bad nutrition, a disease in organs like the heart or the lung, and metabolic or hormone disorders. Women tend to have this disease more often, as they live longer than men. Also, many women at old age live widowed, as compared to men who remarry more usually. Since humans are social creatures, this could be another reason why women develop it more often. As age increases, the risk for Dementia increases as well. Three in Six people who are 85+ have Alzheimer’s.

Signs to this syndrome might be as small as memory loss, decline in ability to perform routine task, impairment of judgment, disorientation, personality changes, difficulty in learning and loss of language skills. The symptoms may vary from person to person. The disease gradually leaves its victims totally incapable of caring for themselves. Treatments for this disease can not slow Alzheimer’s, but it can slow down some of its symptoms, such as memory loss. When the patient goes into the later parts of the disease, where the patient can’t care for themselves assisted living is a good option.

Alzheimer’s can be simplified into four stages:

• Pre-Dementia- The person starts to slightly show symptoms such as memory loss or abstract thinking impairments
• Early- Worse than Pre-Dementia as the patient starts to lose more memory and abilities. Dementia can be diagnosed at this stage
• Mid- Gradually the person even more memory. Their language skills are affected because their vocabulary is shrinking. Their literature skill in overall shrinks. Performing simple task begin to get difficult
• Advanced- A stage where the patient is totally based on the caregiver. The caregiver must assist the patient in ways by helping them do many every day activities like change dress or eat. In this stage the patient mostly can’t be blamed for any of their actions because it is not their will do this any of this.

One clinical alone test cannot identify this disease. You may have to look for several doctors and run several tests to see if you have it. Doctors you might have to look for include psychiatrists, neurologists, and a psychologist. To determine if a person has Alzheimer’s doctors have to use a Physical, Neurological, or/and a Psychiatric Testing. These are the possible check ups that may be present in these exams:

Physical:

• A Complete Medical History – the doctor searches through the patient’s entire medical record to see for signs. The doctor also looks at the patient’s Family members to see if anyone had Alzheimer’s.
• Body Check Ups – Blood Testing, X-rays, Electrocardiogram (an object that charts the electrical impulses of the heart)

Neurological:

• Brain Imaging:
• A CT Scan- Machine that creates a 3d picture of the internal body using X-rays
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging- More common than a CT scan. This is a medical structure that creates a picture of a person’s interns like the CT scanner, but clearer.
• Other tests
• Reflex , motor skills, sensory function, balance and coordination, and several other tests

Psychiatric:

• Mental Tests: The psychiatrist checks for possible symptoms like forgetfulness to analyze the patient for Alzheimer’s

People with Alzheimer’s eventually cannot do simple tasks like swallowing because of their memory loss. They might give a taxi driver a hundred dollars due to their impaired judgment. Patients with Alzheimer’s might get lost frequently or have difficulty in learning new things or ways. A person with Alzheimer’s may live up to 10 years on average, though there have been reports of people living over 20 years with it.

Lots of research goes on for this subject, with scientists getting closer to a cure. Every now and then,

we see drugs that seem to be closing in to cure the disease. Some drugs such as Donepezil or Memantine can be used in combinations and claim to stop dementia in its tracks. The latest research revealed on July 30, 2008 is the development of Rember and “PBT2” pills.

So how can we take care of a person with Alzheimer’s? It puts a family in a very frustrating and awkward position to watch a loved one in such a condition. It is important that we understand that people with Alzheimer’s have special needs as compared to people who do not. People with Alzheimer’s find many of the simple things we do hard. For example, we may need to repeat any directions given to the person more than just once saying it in simple words. Labeling things around the house such as utensils and its use or which drawer holds what will help the person remember. Letting the person wander off out of supervision probably could result disastrous since the person can forget where he/she is and/or cause problems. While keeping the person safe, it is also important for us to take care of them by creating recreation in their life. We don’t need much more than a normal person requires to be given to the affected person. For example, taking the person to a movie, partaking in a physical activity with them, and giving them a chance to socialize with other people keep their alertness and intelligence levels up. As we keep the affected person healthy, its also important that stress shouldn’t affect us in forms of guilt embarrassment or anger, since the patient’s condition is most likely not yours or their fault.

If you or someone you know has Alzheimer’s it is crucial to see that you are not alone in the situation. There are many places where you can find support, if it be online, or physical. The Alzheimer’s Association has a great list of locations across the U.S. Their website contains a whole other wealth of information as well.

The Alzheimer’s disease affects the patient in a cruel way. Research and Technology will eventually find a cure for it, but until then we have to keep ourselves informed about the possible dangers of not only this, but other diseases.