Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimers Disease Overview
Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, degenerates healthy brain tissue affecting every day activities such as thinking, memory, and judgment. With aging the risk of Alzheimer’s increases
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease but if caught early there are treatment options available that can slow down the disease and improve quality of life for the people affected by this condition.
Common Questions Asked
What Is Alzheimer’s? Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia that affects people most commonly over the age of 65 with about 4.5 million Americans suffering from the condition.
Is Alzheimer’s Hereditary? There are different factors that can create this condition and studies show that genetics can play a large part in developing Alzheimer’s.
What is Dementia? Dementia is a group of symptoms that are caused by various diseases or conditions. Symptoms including but not exhaustive:
- Changes in personality, mood, and behavior
- Loss of mental functions
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Loss of memory
- Trouble thinking clearly
- Problems with reasoning
Alzheimer’s Symptoms
The symptoms of Alzheimer’s diseases can start off mild and may go unnoticed at first, but will continually develop into a life changing condition affecting abilities to think, learn, and remember.
Memory Loss is generally the first symptoms that people notice but how do you distinguish normal memory loss from a dementia condition such as Alzheimer’s?
Everyone forgets things, and with age the mind seems to laps a little more but there is a difference between forgetting the occasional name of an acquaintance and early onset of Alzheimer’s.
Common memory loss symptoms include:
- Forgetting the names of familiar objects.
- Forgetting names of close friends and family members.
- Always losing objects and placing them in odd locations.
- Often forget conversations.
- Forgetting long periods of time or activities that they were a part of.
Issues with thinking clearly Another common symptom is issues with thinking clearly such as trouble with numbers, finding the right word to use, and doing things that were once everyday chores like using timers or remotes.
Disorientation Alzheimer patients often lose track of where they are, time, and dates.
Personality changes Such as mood swings, personality changes, distrust, fear, social anxiety, depression, and anger can be a tell tail sign of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships for some people may be a sign of Alzheimer’s. Often they have difficulty judging distances, reading, or even recognizing themselves in the mirror.
This list is not exhaustive and it may be difficult to distinguish Alzheimer’s in the early onset of the disease. It takes time for all the symptoms become apparent, so if you think that there may be a chance that you or your loved one is symptomatic then you should talk to your physician as soon as possible to insure the longest quality of life possible.
What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease
While the exact causes of are not fully understood it’s believed to be a combination of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors that help develop Alzheimer’s. The damage to the brain however is well documented and appear in most Alzheimer’s patients.
The two main brain issues are as follows.
Plaques are clumps of a harmless protein called beta-amyloid which is found to interfere with communication between brain cells. The abnormal processing of this prtien is thought to be one of the reasons for the onset of the disease.
Tangles are the internal support structure for brain cells and depend on a protein called tau. In people with Alzheimer’s, threads of the tau protein become altered and that causes them to become twisted. It’s believed that this factor may seriously damage neurons, causing them to die and is apparent in most people with Alzheimer’s.
Lifestyle Factors Evidence is mounting that exercise, diet, and mental stimulation may be a factor in for developing Alzheimer’s as well as a connection between people that sustain head injuries. Certain measures throughout life such as continued mental stimulation, wearing seat belts, eating right, and staying away from toxins like alcohol and drugs can help decrease the chance of developing the condition.
Family History And Genetics Studies have shown that people with a family history of Alzheimer’s can be as much as three times as likely to develop the disease then someone with no family history.
Scientists have also identified two kinds of genes that are associated with this genetic risk factor. The first one is thought to be considered a risk gene called ApoE 4, that increases the chance of developing Alzheimer’s, but does not guarantee it.
The second gene is called a deterministic gene and is much rarer than the risk gene. This gene is found in only a few hundred extended families in the whole world and almost guarantees that the person will develop Alzheimer’s, and usually at a much younger age.
Scientists also believe that there could be up to a dozen more risk genes that may hold the key to determining exactly what causes Alzheimer’s and may help to increase the effectiveness of treatment options.
Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis and Tests
The only way to be one hundred percent sure if someone has had Alzheimer’s is after death with a microscopic examination of the brain for plaques and tanglesm doctors can diagnose the disease with a number of other tests as follows.
Neuropsychological Testing Doctors may give a thorough examination of memory and thinking skills to start the diagnosing process. These tests can take hours but will help give a decent idea of what the patent is experiencing and if further tests are required.
Brain Scans Using scans, with Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Computerized tomography (CT), or Positron emission tomography (PET) devices doctors will look for abnormalities such as clots, bleeding, or tumors that may indicate reasons for the symptoms of Alzheimers as well as density spots of amyloid plaques. With this information used with the Neuropsychological Testing doctors have a 90% accuracy rate in properly diagnosing the disease.
Alzheimer’s Disease Treatments and Drugs
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s but there are two types of medications that can help slow down the progressiveness of the disease.
Cholinesterase Inhibitors This group of medications which includes donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon) and galantamine (Razadyne) works by increasing the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. Only about half of the people on these medications resoponed positivly with improvement and have mild side effects of diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Memantine (Namenda) Is used for moderate to severe Alzheimer’s and has a decent rate of effectiveness as well as low side effects such as anger and dizziness.
Doctors may also prescribe other medications to help with the symptoms of the disease such as sleeplessness, wandering, anxiety, agitation and depression. They may also prescribe medications to treat the side effects caused by the previous medications.
Alternative and Home Remedies
There are many things you can do to help offset and perhaps prevent your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease, which include having a healthy lifestyle and eating right, physical exercise on a regular basis, and keeping your mind moving by doing mentally challenging activities. By keeping healthy as with all diseases and conditions it has been shown that the body responds positively and there for you may decrease your chances from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
