Alzheimer's Disease Essay

In the world certain diseases can initiate many difficulties in person’s daily life. Forms of dementia, or gradual mental decline in an individual, comprise a core amount of these diseases. Around a century ago, a man named Alois Alzheimer first classified a distinct form of dementia that occurred in an individual near old age (“Alzheimer’s disease”). This individual was a fifty-one year old female named Auguste, and an autopsy of her brain approximately four years after her diagnosis revealed a degeneration of her brain, an accumulation of amyloid plaques, and an appearance of neurofibrillary tangles, the characteristics connected with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Fraller, Deidre Brett). Occurring in brain cells, Alzheimer’s disease impacts areas of the brain centered on interpreting and storing information ("Alzheimer's disease"). Studying the scientific nature of Alzheimer’s disease and possible methods of discovery and treatment are necessary to identify potential methods for treating the disease on a greater scale.
Alzheimer’s disease causes unstoppable mental regression and produces irrational behaviors in its victims ("Alzheimer's disease"). Memory failures appear commonly among all people with normal mental development. People suffering from Alzheimer’s disease also frequently iterate their behaviors and struggle in remembering matters important to them such as their friends, family, and themselves. People with Alzheimer’s disease might lose interest in activities they appreciated previously, and may experience a personality shift. For persons with AD, memory failures start off small while gradually becoming more severe (Odenheimer, Germaine, et. al.). Amyloid plagues, a trait associated with AD, may become too dif...

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...ved collectively by researchers, scientists can establish connections between their colleagues’ studies and their own studies. The origins of Alzheimer’s disease are currently unexplained, but further studies might bear more results on its specific origins. Pathological characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease can also be further explored to possibly determine these specific roots. Improving forms of early diagnosis in Alzheimer’s disease will greatly influence the possible prevention of the disease, since constant brain degeneration in an individual seems unlikely to cure with current scientific technology. These specific methods for preventing the disease if diagnosed early enough could be forms of drug treatment and behavioral rehabilitations helping to stimulate the mind, and thus decreasing the odds that a person would develop this dreadful style of dementia.