What is Alzheimer’s Disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and often fatal brain disorder. This disease is named for the German physicist Alois Alzheimer, who made his discovery in 1906 after performing an autopsy on a 51-year-old woman and locating fatty deposits in the small blood vessels in her dead and dying brain cells.
Today, almost 5 million Americans are dealing with this serious illness, and Alzheimer’s disease constitutes the sixth leading cause of death in America. As with the rest of our body, our brains slow down as we age. Many of us can’t do the things we used to when we were young and serious memory loss and confusion can be a part of life, as well as a sign that brain cells may be dying. Human brains compose the largest supercomputers on the planet and contain over 100 billion neurons. All of these neurons communicate with each other to form networks tat perform special tasks in areas such as sight, smell, or the ability to learn a new language. Others regulate functions performed automatically by the brain such as heartbeat and breathing. All neurons need to be free of hindrances in order to successfully transmit information.
Plaques and tangles will damage or even kill nerve cells, and are among the abnormalities that are found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients on a regular basis. Plaques build up in between the spaces between nerve cells, while tangles are twisted damaged fibers of a specific brain protein. Both plaques and tangles form in areas important to learning and memory, causing damage in the way that the neurons transmit information, blocking communication between nerve cells and disrupting basic activities of cells required in order to survive.
In early-stage onset of Alzheimer’s disease, individuals can have problems with memory and processing information, which will start to negatively affect their daily routine. Early onset Alzheimer’s is relatively uncommon in people under 65, with over a half a million individuals in their 30s through 50s having this disorder. Alzheimer’s in individuals over the age of 65 affects approximately 27 million people worldwide, and this number is expected to quadruple by the middle of the 21st century.
The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disorder results when a loved one of the sufferer notices problems with memory and concentration, and he or she becomes concerned with their partner’s behavior. Typically, this sufferer will not recognize that they have a problem, and the need for treatment will require an independent source. There are a number of tests that are taken to diagnose the disease.
Unfortunately, there is no cure as of yet for Alzheimer’s, but much research is currently being done in this regard. There are a wide variety of treatment options available to treat this disease, and the future looks bright for sufferers of the disorder. Antipsychotic drugs can be useful in reducing psychosis in advanced cases of Alzheimer’s disease, and a number of pharmaceutical medications can adjust the way in which the neurons transmit information, increasing concentration and improving memory. Behavioral adjustments such as therapy can also improve one’s control of the disease if only over a short period of time. With a whole host of options to manage Alzheimer’s disease, there is no excuse to hold off treatment and successful management of this illness is within your reach.