mind cell obliteration - Alzhimers (Altzheimers)

Alzhimers

As the recall gradually fails due to Altzheimers, many repetitive Alzhimers questions, anxiety and on occasion a distorted vision of reality can make the day by day living complicated for friends and family. At the same time, seen from the perception of the tolerant, it is frequently best if he can hang about at home, living in his usual atmosphere. The substitution between patient and family can be very easier said than done.
Many couples, where one get-together has Alzhimers, will express how they little by little move away from their normal social contacts and network as the syndrome progresses. A causative factor is the patients feeling of being an unknown. The circumstance can lead to struggle not only for the patient, but also for close own flesh and blood. It is essential to try and clash against this growth, to make an effort and keep community networks and the potential of incentive this offers.
After a few years where the disease shows only as a memory dilemma, Alzhimers will progress and affect the talent to read sensory impersonation and the gift to act in dissimilar normal situations. The patient will have an exertion administering the bills, interpretation the newspaper, watching TV or later on, to do anything. The need for rally round from close relatives or carers will increase as the disease progresses. There can also be hallucinations where the patient hears or sees a thing that doesn’t exist.
The circumstance can not be treated today but there is medicine existing to extravagance some of the symptoms. Innermost cases, Altzheimers patients can stay in their house but the condition will gradually get inferior and the patient will find it more and more difficult to interpret signals from the near world. Sooner or later it becomes hard to eat, even if a big shot is there to lend a hand and in the end, the body is so destabilized that it will not be able to keep up the imperative functions any longer.

Alzhimers

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Alzhimers disease history!

Origins unknown, the battle with Alzhimers continues

One could trace back the history of Alzhimers disease from a presentation and lecture made by a German psychiatrist in 1906 during 37th Meeting of Southwest German Psychiatrists held in Tübingen.

Dr. Alois Alzheimer presented his findings on a woman who had died after years of having memory problems and confusion.
When Dr. Alzheimer autopsied the patient's brain, he found thick deposits of neuritic plaques outside and around the nerve cells. He also found a lot of twisted bands of fibers or neurofibrillary tangles inside the nerve cells.

Today, medical specialists need to find the presence of the same plaques and tangles at autopsy in order to have a conclusive diagnosis that Alzhimers's disease indeed caused the disease. And due to this lecture and achievement in research and studies, the medical community has bestowed the honor of naming the disease after Dr. Alzheimer.

However, Dr. Alzheimer's work only signaled the start of years of medical research and studies which could only resolve the mysteries of the disease by so much. Up until now, Alzhimers's disease has still unknown origin and remains to have no cure. At first, the diagnosis of Alzhimers's disease was limited for individuals between the ages of 45-65 since the symptoms of pre-senile dementia due to the histopathologic process are more common and prominent during this age.

However, during the 1970s and early 1980s, the term Alzhimers's disease began to be used to refer to patients of all ages that manifest the same symptoms.

Statistics show that around 350,000 new cases of Alzhimers's disease are being diagnosed each year. It is estimated that by 2050, there are 4.5 million Americans afflicted by the disease. Recent studies have shown that there is an increase risk of contracting and developing Alzhimers as one grows older.

It has been reported that 5 percent of Americans between the ages of 65 to 74 suffer from Alzhimers disease. Also, half of those in the 85 years and older age group are more likely to have the disease.

Generics have also been seen as a factor in the development of the disease. Scientists have found out that mutations on chromosomes 9 and 19 have been associated with the later stages of Alzhimers. However, not everyone that manifests the mutations results to having the disease. Up until now, the relationship between genetics and late-onset Alzhimers is still a grey area.

Meanwhile, other research have associated trauma as a factor that increases the risk of acquiring the disease. There are also evidences which suggest that lack of exercise increases the risk factor of Alzheimer's. It is important to avoid high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and low levels folate in order to decrease the risk of developing the disease.

There are basically three stages of Alzhimers's disease. Stage 1 or Mild Stage is the early of the disease. At this stage patients become less energetic and will experience slight memory loss. Often times, the symptoms at this stage are either go unnoticed or are ignored as but trivial or normal occurrences.

At Stage 2 or Moderate stage, the patient needs to be assisted in some complicated tasks and memory loss is no highly noticeable. The final stage is the severest stage. Because the disease already progresses too far this point, the patient is unable to perform simple tasks and will lose the ability to walk or eat without help.

Alzhimers

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What Exactly is Alzhimers?

Alzhimers

As uncommon as the name of the disease sounds, its prevalence and incidence rates are not. In fact, almost four million people in the United States are affected by this problem. All can be affected, men or women, across all social status and economic position in life.

Alzhimers is a progressive and degenerative problem under the umbrella of diseases called dementia. It is characterized by disorientation and impaired memory. It is apparently caused by an attack in the brain, affecting one’s memory, thinking skills and judgment. Most patients will experience a change in language ability, in the way they use their mental processes and of course their behavior.

While anybody can be affected by this problem, only those that are older than age 65 experience the lagging in their thinking skills. Still, there are some who gets Alzhimers even when they are just 30 years old but these cases are very rare and can only account for a small percentage of the total number of cases. One out of 10 people over the age 65 has Alzhimers and nearly half of these patients are over 85 years old. In a national survey conducted in the United States, almost 19 million Americans have one family member who suffers from this dreaded problem.

In addition to old age, family history of dementia can also predispose someone to the disease. This is because Alzhimers is said to be caused by a problem in the genetic mutations. Still, when you study the cases, Alzhimers is commonly the result of a host of other factors besides genes. In fact, environmental factors such as hobbies and mental pursuits are things that can help prevent the onset of the problem.

What is difficult with Alzhimers is the fact that its symptoms are basically the same with ordinary signs of old age. At the beginning, there will be some memory loss. The person with Alzhimers will also experience confusion and disorientation even with things that they are used to doing. The trick is to make sure that one can recognize what a normal memory loss is against something of Alzheimer’s caliber.

Often, there will be a gradual memory loss. They will find it hard to read or to write or to think clearly. After which they will experience a decline in the ability to perform tasks that are already automatic and routinary. Believe it or not, in cases that are already in the terminal stage, the patient may even forget how to brush their teeth or how to use a spoon and fork, something that is really pretty basic with a lot of people.

This is one example of the difference of Alzhimers from ordinary memory loss. Forgetfulness will not affect tasks that are routinary. There will also be difficulty in learning new things and in memorizing things. Some patients may even forget the language that they are speaking with while others will no longer recognize their family. Personality will change in terms of the way they communicate with other people and the way they behave.

There is actually no change in personality per se but because of the problems in their memory, they may appear aloof and suspicious perhaps because they cannot recognize the people that they know before. Some may even become extremely fearful and passive for the simple fact that they cannot remember you. As the disease worsens, the patient will then become so incapable of taking care of themselves that they will require help even in eating and in sleeping.

Alzhimers

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