The Primary Cause Of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer 's is a brain disorder that affects more than 5.3 million people in the United States. The elderly are mainly affected by loss of memory. Scientists have not yet found a cure for this disease which is destroying minds. The government has been helping with a plan giving $600 million a year. Their goal is to prevent or treat the disease by 2025. In coming decades, Scientists predict the number of people will rise to 13.8 million. The aging population is increasing because of low birth rates and increased life expectancy. As America 's population ages, there will be other health issues emerging. The most common health concerns for seniors are diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer. All of these conditions are the leading cause of death.

Statement of Purpose: Today, I want to tell you about three aspects of Alzheimer’s disease.

People with the disease have trouble behaving appropriately, even though they desperately want to appear like their normal selves, their brains aren’t up to it. Healthy individuals without Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia still have that choice. Alzheimer’s is about change. It is gradual, but not as gradual as normal aging. It comes on more slowly than some kinds of dementias. If you ask family members when they noticed the changes, they will have difficulty saying. If there is a sudden onset of memory loss or confusion, it is likely due to another cause, such as stroke, medication side effects, or an infection that is disturbing the person’s thinking or mood. When these conditions are treated, memory sometimes improves as well. Alzheimer’s gradually clog up that connective wiring over time. The good news is that different parts of the brain handle different functions, and Alzheimer’s does not damage all of them at the same time or rate. So a person’s sense of humor may be intact while the storage unit for remembering what just happened takes a big hit, or a person remembers some arcane facts of arts history but not how many children he or she has. Changes in the brain’s chemical balance have also been recognized in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Brain cells that function normally produce special chemicals called neurotransmitters, which help send signal throughout the body to ensure its proper functioning. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the brain produces a decreased amount of some of these chemicals, which may result in improper functioning of the nerve cells involved in memory, reasoning, and judgment. Alzheimer’s disease affects people regardless of sex, race, ethnic race groups, or socioeconomic circumstances. It is estimated that up to four million Americans are currently affected. As the general population ages, the number of persons with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to

In the chapter Illness, Society, and History in his book Framing Disease, Charles Rosenberg claimed that “in some ways disease does not exist until we say it does, by perceiving, naming and responding to it” (Rosenberg). Once accepted, these named diseases play a role in a complex network of social negotiations. Does this mean the disease does not exist before it is given a name or, rather, does it mean that a set of symptoms is placed into a new context? In the lines below, I will be exploring the meaning behind Rosenberg’s quote by discussing what the affect of the social construction of Alzheimer’s disease has been in social and familial contexts over the past few decades, as well as how Alzheimer’s was thought of before a diagnosis was

Transition: The first most common type of Dementia we are going to talk about is Alzheimer’s.

The Long Island Alzheimer’s Foundation (LIAF) is a social model day program for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and other related memory disorders to help improve their quality of life. LIAF is located in Port Washington, NY and offers services to treat individuals with early, moderate and late stage Alzheimer’s. The agency population is comprised of male and female participates with ages ranging from mid-fifties to late-nineties who all suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. LIAF biopsychosocial are done during a client’s initial intake and reviews are conducted quarterly by a Social Worker.

1. The author’s article, “Alzheimer’s Time Bomb”, tells about how many people will be struggling with Alzheimer’s in the next 50 years and how it will effect our country since there is no cure.

Alzheimer’s Disease impacts an individual’s memory and other vital brain functions. AD results in dementia, which is the result of cognitive loss as well as general communal skills. The effects of the symptoms are unfortunately stern enough to affect the individual in their every day life. It deteriorates the brains nerve cells, which causes the individual to experience behavioral changes.

The final goal is to translate the information obtained from scientific discoveries into new treatments to improve cognitive function, slow the progression of AD, delay the onset, and ultimately prevent AD. Currently, there are an estimated 5.3 million Americans with AD, and the estimated cost of care in the US in 2010 for AD and other dementias was 172 billion dollars. (12) It is estimated that the worldwide prevalence of AD will be 30 million, and the number is expected to quadruple by 2050. (12) Evidently, Alzheimer’s is becoming one of the most prevalent and important global public health issues. Unfortunately, despite these statistics, Alzheimer’s research remains severely underfunded. AD requires more attention from the world, and should become an imminent

Lifespan is the period that begins at conception and ends after death. However, Sigelman and Rider’s definition of lifespan is more formal which is “systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death or from “womb to tomb””. Taking a lifespan perspective is looking at an individual to see how that individual grows ,changes, or stay the same over time, usually from birth to death. There are three developments across the lifespan which are physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Physical development is the growth of the body and its organs, while cognitive development is all the development in the brain and how we use it. Psychosocial development is the development of our personalities and

Alzheimer’s is a transformative event that requires us to acknowledge the new needs of a rapidly changing self. It has touched the lives of many people since its discovery by Alois Alzheimer at the start of the 20th century. The disease’s effect on the brain causes you to lose some—if not all—of your memory. You eventually forget who you are, where you are, who your relatives are, how to get home, or even how to eat. This can be a personal tragedy when it happens to you as well as the loved ones who bear the burden of caring for

Although there is no single known cause for Alzheimer’s disease scientists have found physiological changes in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients such as plaques, tangles, and cholinergic deficits. The irreversible physiological changes found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients consists of either clumps of protein fragments known as amyloid plaques or twisted strands of protein called neurofibrillary tangles. These changes may occur many years before any symptoms of the disease even appear. Once this damage occurs it continues to spread throughout the brain. (Pasinetti & Hiller-Sturmhöfel,

a degenerative disease that worsen gradually, and eventually Alzheimer 's could lead to variety of symptoms

EEA2 transporters are primarily found in the central nervous system (CNS) and are responsible for moving glutamate away from synapses shortly after it is released; the swift removal of glutamate is meant to prevent prolonged excitation of nerve cells (Foran & Trotti, 2009). With the dysfunction of EEA2 transporters, glutamate over excites the postynaptic membranes of nearby nerve cells—the over abundance of the excitatory neurotransmitter, as well as the prolonged contact, causes an increase in calcium (Ca2+) permeability of surrounding nerve cells. The increase of Ca2+ permeability also causes the release of intracellular Ca2+ stores. Along with the influx of intracellular Ca2+, sodium (Na+) follows the Ca2+ into the cell, causing further stimulation. As a result of the increased intracellular levels of Ca2+ and Na+, potassium (K+) leaves the cell—the resulting effect is cell swelling and death of the neuron. Glutamate isn't the only factor that can play into the fatal disease though, oxidative stress can also be a contributing

In the prompt, we are given the case of a daughter who is conflicted over the decision to whether or not implement new cell-based treatments on her father who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. While new cell-based treatments offer potential cure for these patients, with the treatment still in experimental stages, concerns regarding their safety and impact on patients’ memories and identities have been raised. The “Four Principles Approach” provides an ethical framework for evaluating such moral decisions. The framework outlines four key values: respect for autonomy, beneficence, maleficence, and justice. Here, it will be argued that since the father is unable to formulate autonomous decisions under cognitive impairments, the daughter is