Dementia and Alzheimer´s Disease

     Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, “a brain disorder that seriously affects a person’s ability to carry out daily activities (Shenk 14)”. Alzheimer’s is a progressive and irreversible brain disorder that slowly destroys a person’s memory and ability to learn, make judgments, communicate, and accomplish daily activities. As Alzheimer’s progresses, individuals may also experience changes in personality and behavior, such as anxiety, suspiciousness or aggravation, as well as illusions or hallucinations.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological disorder, in which one progressively loses memory, thinking skills, and the ability to perform activities of daily living. Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia also called senile dementia, and two thirds of dementia cases are from Alzheimer’s disease (ZZZZ). This disease usually effects the older generation, early 60s to late 60’s. According to the National Institute of Aging, over 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, and it is ranked the sixth leading cause of death (ZZZZ). This disease is caused by changes in the brain. Researchers noted these changes were a buildup of abnormal plaques called, amyloid plaques, a lost connection between nerve cells and the brain, and also fibers in the brain become tangled. Also this is a genetic disease, and environmental factors also play a role in the onset of this disease. These characteristics are said to cause the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (ZZZ). Alzheimer’s disease has many onset symptoms. The most common symptoms of this disease are memory loss and confusion. Examples of this is asking the same question and not realizing it, and not remembering where things are. These symptoms progressively worsen to the person forgetting who their family members are, and eventually not being able to function on their own.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia that generally initiates the lost memory, problem of critical thinking and behavior problems for the elderly patients. It’s not a normal part of aging but the large number of elderly people reached 65 and older are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The most common early symptoms are struggle in remembering recent events or short term memory. As the disease advance more symptoms begin to show up like problems in speaking and language, disorientation like getting lost and cease to remember the present activity that they are supposed to do. Mood swings go from happy to sad for no reason. Not managing their self, personal hygiene

Alzheimer’s Disease is a form of dementia affecting more than one third of those over ninety-five years old. Its effects vary per person and become systematically more extreme as time wears on. Alzheimer’s is currently incurable and impossible to slow, destroying neurons and brain tissue, resulting in loss of memory, judgment, awareness, communication, behavior and capacity for emotion. Changes in personality and loss of initiative are also common symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s is an irreversible, progressive disease of the brain that gradually destroys memory as well as thinking skills. It eventually destroys the ability to perform the simplest chores. In many individuals with Alzheimer’s, the symptoms manifest after 65 years of age. Among the elderly people, Alzheimer’s illness is the leading cause of dementia (Stern, 2006). Dementia includes a loss of behavioral abilities and cognitive function including thinking, reasoning, and remembering. The loss of behavioral abilities and cognitive function may interfere with an individual’s daily activities of living. Dementia varies in severity from the mildest phase, at onset, affecting an individual’s functioning to the most serious phase when the individual must depend entirely on other people for basic daily living activities. (Pasquier, 1999). This paper will explain the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia since the two are greatly confused.

This analysis of degenerative diseases covers four main diseases in today’s world, including: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and Dementia. Alzheimer’s is a degenerative form of dementia that attacks neurons causing the total or partial loss of memory, thinking abilities, language skills, and basic behaviors. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease that targets the central nervous system. Generally the disease will cause tremors, loss of coordination, paralysis, and eventually death. Huntington’s is potentially the most deadly as it attacks both the central nervous system and the individual’s cognitive abilities. Huntington’s disease causes the affected to lose the ability to walk, speak, eat, think, and even how to breathe. Dementia is simply the beginning junction to all these diseases as it is the most “basic” form of degeneration of the brain. One may ask, how do these horrible diseases come to be and who may be affected? Hopefully this analysis will clarify some of these questions.

Aging is a natural process of cognitive impairment in elderly people causing loss of executive functions as compared to younger people. A huge number of people in our current population are in this group. Eurostats (European statistical Institute) data show 18.9% of the European population in 2015 was 65 years and over. With aging, the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia increases.

Alzheimer 's is a disease of the nervous system and is one of the most common forms of dementia. It is characterized by memory loss and the loss of other intellectual abilities. These losses hinder one 's normal ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) such as

Alzheimer's sickness is the most widely recognized reason for dementia. It takes its name from the therapist Alois Alzheimer, who in the mid twentieth century was the main individual to portray the illness. After some time, individuals who have Alzheimer's lose their memory and capacity to think. Introduction in space and time turn out to be progressively troublesome, and it is likewise harder for them to oversee alone in regular daily existence. Those influenced require more help as the infection advances.

Marlene Targ Brill uses, in her book about Alzheimer's, Nancy Reagan's quote to describe this awful neurodegenerative disease. "Alzheimer's disease is a cruel disease that steals lives. It's hard to know what to expect. The years of exchanging memories of old age are gone. It's long, long good-bye" (Nancy Reagan, former First Lady, pg 10). Alzheimer's symptoms are most often confused with normal symptoms of aging, although they have a greater effect on daily life. Some of the symptoms are: poor judgment and decision making, inability to manage budget, losing track of the date or the season, difficulty having a conversation and misplacing things and being unable to retrace steps to find them.

— Elderly people suffering from Dementia and Alzheimer meet with a progressive cognitive decline making them experience hardship in performing their everyday conventional activities especially in their outdoor navigation as they tend to forget landmarks even in familiar environments due to gradual decline in their memory and thinking abilities. Hence, disorientation and wandering become common issue. Providing assistive guidance to the elderly people in their outdoor mobility has become a challenging task for caretakers and family members as most of the elders prefer to live independently. Thus, there arises a need for efficient solutions that can monitor the elderly people movements and notify the caretakers in the event of disorientation or wandering being detected.

Alzheimer’s disease is a very slowly progressive disease that occurs inside the brain in which is characterized by damage of memory. Also this type of disease can lead into interruption in language, problem solving, planning and perception. The chance of a person developing Alzheimer’s disease increases enormously after the age of 70 (Crystal, 2009). Also people who are over the age of 85 have over a 50 percent chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This type of disease is not at all normal in the aging process and is also not something that happens out of no where in a person’s life.

An aspect of aging that I have often grappled with is the increased incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease that we have seen in the last 20 years. I remember vividly, as a psychiatric nurse that started my mental health in an inpatient geriatric facility, we often had patients that were admitted in our facility that either suffered from bipolar, schizophrenia and lastly older people that were depressed either due to loss of a spouse and were grieving.

I can't agree with you more. When I started this assignment, all I could think of were those same things. Going outside playing with friends, playing video games and not haven't a real true care in the world. It is truly amazing how life works out sometimes. An I agree that at that age we are flooded with emotions and everything is always 100 as the last video said. I look back on growing up and I just laugh thinking about all the stupid little problems I had and how I made them out to be the end of the world. A lost love, a broken heart...... Now, I do not have a lot of experience in the older age department but reading your post is truly what most if not all adults worry about. If they don't I am sure that I do. Dementia and Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's is a progressive, degenerative and fatal disease in which cell to cell connections in the brain are lost. It is the most common type of dementia, and its also most common in patients that are 65 or older. Alois Alzheimer was the founder of this disease. Up until the 1960’s it was known as senile dementia, and It was also considered a normal part of aging. In the early 1970’s, scientists began to go more in depth with their research. Any type of dementia is characterized by the loss of neurons and synapses in certain subcortical regions of the brain. Soon, the hippocampus, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe start to degenerate, as well as parts of the frontal cortex and cingulate gyrus.