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)
