Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s – A Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is basically a form of dementia, a brain disorder that affects the areas of the brain immediately responsible for the execution of everyday activities.
Alzheimer is the most common form of dementia in older people. It is known to affect the brain cells that are in charge for controlling the thoughts, memory and language.
Consequently, people suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease become exceedingly delusional and estranged, with no regard to their surroundings, environment and atmosphere. While it is mostly prevalent in older age groups, it has also been known to affect younger people, though on a much smaller scale.

Important Knowledge Regarding Alzheimer’s Disease

The prevalence of the disease among older age groups is something that tends to be stressed considering the fact that while about 5% of men and women aged 65 to 74 have Alzheimer’s, nearly half of those age 85 and older may have suffer from this disease.
Moreover, it would be relevant to acknowledge that the key reason due to which alternative measures to the disease are being considered significantly is that the statistics indicate that as many as 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

History of Alzheimer’s Disease

The disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German doctor who took keen interest in particularly uncharacteristic alterations in the brain tissues of a woman who died of an unknown mental illness in 1906.
Upon examination, doctor Alzheimer found abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers. As a result of significant achievement in medical science, these clumps and bundles have been defined as amyloidal plaques and neurofibrillary tangles respectively. Contemporary research has established that other brain changes in people with Alzheimer’s disease include the dying of nerve cells in areas of the brain vital to memory and other mental abilities.
Furthermore, another thing that has frequently been associated with Alzheimer’s disease is the dramatic reduction of the chemicals in the brain that are particularly responsible for conveying signal messages back and forth between nerve cells. It is evident, that this disease appears to impair thinking and memory in as much as disrupting the normal path of these signals.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a disorder that begins relatively slowly.

1. The first symptom is usually mild forgetfulness that is typically apparent such as the incapacity to recall recent events, activities, the names of familiar people and/or things. However, as the disease begins to progress, the symptoms begin to grow steadily and dramatically worsen.
2. People suffering from the mid-stage of Alzheimer’s may forget to perform perfunctory tasks such as brushing their teeth or combing their hair.
3. People with advanced stage disease may become anxious or aggressive and even wander away from their homes as a result of absolute disorientation.

Care and Treatment

It is important to know that eventually patients with significant cases of Alzheimer’s will require total medical care and attention. In some cases, the patients were known to lose their complete mental balance and had to be cared for like a small child.
While there is no known cure for this disease in spite of the extensive ongoing research that is being carried out; there are particular drugs that have proven to be instrumental for slowing down some of the symptoms.
Some medicines, for instance, may help control behavioral symptoms such as sleeplessness, agitation, wandering, anxiety and depression in Alzheimer's patients. Controlling these symptoms is necessary as it makes the patients more comfortable, subsequently easing the job of those responsible for treatment.