Alzheimers Disease

                                                                   Abstract

As one ages, their bones become weak, immune system becomes weak and so many other things occurs to them. They also become more susceptible and have a risk of developing many disease. One of the disease, that is becoming more prone to the elderly population and is putting many of them in long term care facilities is dementia. According to the Mayo clinic (2017), Dementia cannot be described as a specific disease but rather can be described as a group of symptoms that affects once; memory, thinking and social abilities and begins interfere with daily functioning of the person. Some of the common type of dementia are; Vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and Mixed dementia. The focus of this paper is going to be on Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia and usually affects people who are 65 years and older, although it’s not a normal part of the aging process.

Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases (Alzheimer’s association, 2017, p. 2). It also affects once memory, thinking and behavior with symptoms becoming more severe over time and are irreversible. Although Alzheimer’s usually affects the older populations, symptoms can sometimes appear in the younger population but is rare. When this happens its known as early onset dementia and usually affects people under age 65 years. The exact mechanism of Alzheimer’s isnot known but its believed to has something to do with destruction of nerve cells in the brain. The brain is made up of cells and different parts of the brain has different functions, such as; ability to speak, process information, perform different activities and many more. So when a person has Alzheimer’s these cells are destroyed and is what leads to person not being able to remember information, perform certain task and many other things, since damaged nerve cannot be replaced, hence symptoms are irreversible and only get worse over time.

When looking at the brain of someone with Alzheimer’s, the distinct characteristic that can be seen on this brain and are abnormal structures called Plaques and Tangles. According to the Alzheimer’s association (2017), “Plaques are deposits of a protein fragment called beta-amyloid that build up in the spaces between the nerve cells and Tangles are twisted fibers of another protein called tau that build up inside our cells” (p. 14). Although the exact mechanism Plaques and Tangles use to cause damage to the brain is not known and is normal for an older adult to develop a small amount of this, It is believed to be the primary cause of damage to the cells. When looking at an autopsy of a brain of a person who had Alzheimer’s it can be seen that, Plaques and Tangles on the persons brain follows a pattern and begins to develop in areas of the brain for memory and spread to other regions of the brain. It is believed they work by blocking communication among nerve cells and process that cells needs to survive which eventually leads to nerve cell destruction and death. Some signs and symptoms that can be seen in an Alzheimer’s patient are; difficulty remembering newly learned information, mood changes, behavior changes, difficulty in communication (not being able to think of the right word to say or using the wrong word), finding difficulty in handling complex task (example; driving a car or cooking or making a grocery list), depression, anxiety, agitation, inappropriate behavior, finding difficulty to reason or problem solving and many more. Although these symptoms may vary from person to person, this means no two patients alike especially at the initial stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The average span a person can live with Alzheimer’s ranks from as little ad 3 years to above 10 years depending on the age the person develops this disease. The older one is, the shorter the span the person is able to survive with Alzheimer’s.