Alzheimer's Disease
Anna Wagoner - A3
What is Alzheimer's Disease?
Alzheimer's Cells v. Healthy Cells
Progression of Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's Brain
Symptoms
Memory loss that disturbs every day life.
YES it is okay to forget where you parked the car.
NO it is not okay to forget what your car looks like.
Difficulty completing a familiar task
YES it is okay to need help recording a TV show
NO it is not okay needing help to play a favorite game.
Confusion about time or place
YES it is okay to forget the day, if it is remembered later.
NO it is not okay to constantly need help remembering what day it is.
Problems speaking.
YES it is okay to occasionally have problem finding a word
NO it is not okay to forget the name of a familiar item or friend/family member.
Decreased or poor judgment
YES it is okay to make a bad decision in a outfit choice.
NO it is not okay to not wear any clothes at all
Withdraw from work or social activities
YES it is okay to sometimes not want to go to work or be around family
NO it is not okay to start removing yourself from things that you used to enjoy greatly.
Who is Affected by Alzheimer's?
More than 5 million American’s are living with Alzheimer’s.
Every 67 seconds, someone in the USA develops Alzheimer’s.
1 in 3 senior citizens will die from Alzheimer’s.
More women are affected by Alzheimer’s than men.
In her 60’s women have a 1 in 6 chance of developing Alzheimer’s.
Breast Cancer is a 1 in 11 chance.
Almost 2/3rds of Alzheimer’ patients are women.
60% of Alzheimers caregivers are women.
There are 2.5 times more women given on duty 24 hour care for alzheimers patients than men.
Nearly 19% of women had to quit their jobs to be caregivers for someone with Alzheimer's.
Women are more likely to contract Alzheimer’s than men.
North Carolina in 2014 had 150,000 people with Alzheimer’s or Dementia
Personal Account
Treatment Options
There is no treatment to stop Alzheimer's or a cure for the Disease altogether. However, there are too drugs that help with the symptoms of the disease. These treatments are:
Cholinesterase inhibitors
This medicine helps with the cognitive symptoms and helps boost the cell to cell communication in the brain. This slows the symptoms down and helps keep them “at bay” but does not slow the disease altogether.
Memantine (Namenda)
Another drug that helps with cell to cell communication and helps slows the symptoms of moderate to severe Alzheimer’s. This is used in combination of the inhibitors.
BLoA and CLoA
Biological Levels of Analysis:
Behavior can be Inherited
All though it is unknown how Alzheimer’s in contracted, there is a very rare type of Alzheimer’s known as Early-Onset Alzheimer's which is genetic. It occurs within people of the ages 30-60 and only represents less than 5% of Alzheimer’s patients.
Cognitive, emotions and behaviors are products of the anatomy and physiology of our nervous and endocrine systems.
Alzheimer’s is a disease that attacks the nervous system of the brain. This affects all of a person’s cognitive skills, emotions, and behaviors gradually taking all of them away.
Cognitive Levels of Analysis:
Human Beings are Information Processors and Mental Processes Guide Behavior
When a person has Alzheimer’s they are no longer able to process what is going on around them the same way. For example, my grandmother process that they’re are 6 of my grandfather in the house and that she is being held prisoner. Because of Alzheimer's a person’s mental processes is slowed or inhibited and so the way they perceive and think about the world is completely changed.
The Mind Can Be Studied Scientifically
- Alzheimer’s disease itself is microscopic and cannot be studied by a CAT scan or any other scanning device while the patient is alive. The only way for scientists to see the disease is after the patient has passed and their brain is studied. Alzheimer’s can only be studied in laboratory experiments on the parts of the brain that are affected after the person with Alzheimer’s has passed.
Citations
Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia | Alzheimer's Association. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.as
Memory Loss & 10 Early Signs of Alzheimer's | Alzheimer's Association. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp
Alzheimer's & Dementia Risk Factors | Alzheimer's Association. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_causes_risk_factors.asp