Alzheimer’s disease

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Alzheimer’s disease

Alois Alzheimer is a German neurologist who in 1906 after studying closely a case of a

woman named Auguste D discovered the Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This disease manifests in a

form of dementia and makes a person to lose ability to reason and think. The disease destroys the

connection of nerves throughout the brain causing damage of the person’s memory. When more

and more parts of the brains are affected, they begin to shrink and as time goes by significant

volume of brain loss is observed, a condition called atrophy (Gerrish, Russo, Richards, 2019).

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mostly occurs to either middle aged or older people. I gathered

interest on this discussion so as to generate knowledge and gather information to try and help to

diagnose this disease.

Just as the other parts of the body, human brain ages. The effect of this is slow thinking

and finding it difficult to remember things. When the brain is affected, one conditional problem

experienced is functional fixedness (where one is unable to realize any other use of an object

rather than the regular function). Imagine that you are in a room and you want to drive a nail into

the wall. The regular tool to use for this work is a hammer. Unsuccessfully you spend a lot of

time searching the house but couldn’t find it. Someone comes in finds you out of despair and

suggests you use a piece of metal to drive the nail (Blennow, et al, 2017). Someone may ask,

why didn’t you think of using the piece of metal to do the work instead? Some psychologists

argue that people with this condition often have functional fixedness which prevents them from

thinking of an alternative way to do things. Towards the stages of Alzheimer’s disease, victim is

faced with mild forgetfulness, confusion and short-term memory loss

It’s scientifically proven that different memory system are affected by the disease;

episodic memory is a memory in the system and is used to consciously remember a certain
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episode in a person's life. Among all major memories systems, episodic is the most clinical one.

Any disruption to this memory causes early symptoms of the disease (Blennow, et al, 2017).

Episodic memory is also used to remember more critical events for example taking medication.

For example, getting married, graduating in school etc. This type of memory can be damaged if

cell damage associated with Alzheimer's disease affects the prefrontal cortex of the brain, close

to the lobes. You can slow down the worsening of this type of memory by trying to remember

loved ones, this is one of the most important events in life.

Semantic memory is a repository of conceptual and practical knowledge that may not be

intended for any other memory. It’s mostly called the common knowledge memory of an

individual and comprises of common facts that a person know. For example, color of the sky,

names of famous people etc.

Procedural memory is the ability to learn, develop cognitive and behavioral skills, and

use them automatically. It’s the ability to maintain skills and perfume various tasks. People

mostly affected by Alzheimer disease, may not constantly perform task they previously

performed without being assisted.

Short term memory is the ability to retain new information obtained. This will be affected

mainly at the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. It affects the ability to quickly find a selection

of newly learned information. Victims forgets where tools and objects are placed and are forced

to use reminders and diary to fit their routine.

Simple classical conditioning involves the pairing of different stimuli, an unconditional

and a conditional stimulus. After connecting together, repeatedly until the unwanted reaction is

not related to the conditioned stimulus can only be triggered by the unconditioned stimulus.
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In a scientific study of Alzheimer’s disease patients, scientists have found that some part

of the memory are severely impaired while others are preserved. For instance, semantic memory

will be disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease patient, exhibiting difficulties in giving the names of

items. Studies show that various forms of classical conditioning can be reduced in patients with

Alzheimer disease, including fear conditioning, amygdala-dependent conditioning, and eye blink

conditioning, which can be used to support involvement of the entorhinal cortex, hippocampus,

and other organs.

Alzheimer’s disease tends to progress slowly becomes worse over time and finally affects

nearly every part of the brain, making memory, solving problem, judgement, movement to be

affected negatively. The disease progresses through five stages; during the first stage, preclinical

phase, no symptoms are apparent and the disease can only be identified through research

settings. This phase of Alzheimer’s disease last for years without any notice of change. Use of

genetic test to patients at early stage of Alzheimer’s disease can be beneficial to those individuals

who are willing to be treated. The second stage is mild cognitive impairment (Gerrish, Russo,

Richards, 2019). The thinking ability and patient’s memory have some mild changes which

doesn’t necessarily affect their day-to-day activities. People in this stage have problem of

estimating amount of time on a task and may be having difficulties on making sound decisions.

Earlier recognition of these symptoms may be helpful to the patient as he can start early

medication. The third stage is mild dementia. At this stage the patient is showing most of the

signs like; memory loss from recent events, unsound judgements, difficulty with problem

solving, getting lost and misplacing their things (Gerrish, Russo, Richards, 2019). At the fourth

stage, moderate dementia, people change to be more and more forgetful and becomes confused.

At this stage patients need assistance to help with their chores and selfcare. People at this stage
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experience even greater memory loss, change behavior and personality while some may be

restless and aggressive. During the last stage of the disease, called severe dementia, the patient’s

physical capabilities and movement of the patient are affected and mental health also

deteriorates. In this stage patients, are unable to communicate frequently, becomes weak

physically and therefore requires daily assistance for self-care task.

Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease patient can be challenging, but getting accurate

information and help will help you understand what to expect and what to do. Different

recommendation may be existing for a person who want to diagnose the disease. Experts agree

that this is the best way to plan for Alzheimer's disease before dementia symptoms appear and by

touch (Blennow, et al, 2017). First of all, a person should understand the risk associated with the

disease and the treatment itself. Some treatments are too dangerous and may be taken at patient’s

risk as they might even cause death.

After Alzheimer’s disease diagnose patient is required to; learn more about the disease so

as when it peaks, he/she will know what to expect. Regular medical check is also advised to keep

the patient in good form as some of the symptoms can be beaten at the checkup. Patients

diagnosed should seek help and assistance for their day-to-day activities. Patients can also use

memory aid tools to make sure that their schedule is intact like reminders, diaries and calendars.

Doctors recommend that the patient suffering from the disease should adhere to healthy practices

like staying healthy, always be home safe with a caretaker, minimize hard work and instead do

some body exercise (Blennow, et al, 2017). Legal advisors recommend their clients to seek long

term, legal and financial care plan. Patient may prepare a will or even adjust one’s health funds

to cater for hospital bills. My take in this discussion is that Alzheimer’s disease patients should

be aligned with caregivers to help them schedule their work wisely, give simple instruction, limit
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their distraction, provide them with limited choices for performing duties and help the patient eat

healthy.

Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative infection which ultimately affect a person's brain

and affect the ability to think independently. People with Alzheimer's disease should be treated

with kindness and caution, knowing that they can still enjoy life. Physical and chemical

restrictions apply only as a last resort. There are many proven options for these ways, which are

the cornerstones of personalized care (Blennow, et al, 2017). This information may be of use to

patients of Alzheimer’s disease as well as their family members affected by their condition.

Researchers should dig hard to establish how people should ensure better lives to people with

this disease. They should also look for better forms of treatment using the modern technology.
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REFERENCES

Blennow K., de Leon MJ., Zetterberg H. Alzheimer's disease. Lancet. 2017;368:387–403.

Gerrish A., Russo G., Richards A., et al The role of variation at A beta PP, PSEN1, PSEN2, and

MAPT in late onset Alzheimer's disease. J Alzheimers Dis. 2019;28:377–387.