Alzheimer's disease is a serious neurological disorder that slowly causes patients to lose their memories and their identities. In time, the patient dies, but before that occurs, there are many different symptoms that can appear. One common symptom of Alzheimer's is wandering. Family members and/or caregivers need to understand what causes wandering and what steps they can take to prevent wandering to ensure the safety of their sick loved ones. What is Wandering? Wandering is walking away from home or wandering around places once familiar. As the disorder continues to rob a person of his memories, the patient becomes increasingly disoriented, sometimes even in his own home. This disorientation leads to further walking as the person tries to remember where he is or where he is going. Why Alzheimer's Patients Wander …show more content…
She may be looking for a bathroom, a familiar place, or a family member or friend. The problem is that the person has forgotten how to locate a bathroom, or is in new surroundings and doesn’t know where anything is. For some people stress or anxiety also leads to wandering. Wandering may also be the result of restlessness or boredom. The Dangers of Wandering The main problem of wandering is that it can lead to your loved one getting lost. Her wandering can take her far away from home. When outdoors, the patient becomes scared and is often unable to care for herself. This means your loved one may be unable to find shelter, food or water or to ask for assistance. While disoriented and away from home, an Alzheimer's patient may become dehydrated, or suffer heat stroke or hypothermia depending on the weather. Getting hit by a car is another possibility because the person forgets how to cross the street. Other dangers include tripping and falling, sometimes in remote areas. Preventing
She started to try and forget and just fall asleep, but her thoughts would always wander too far for her to return to her natural state of mind. She contemplated with herself, why she was running away? What she was running away from?
Forgetfulness is just one of the symptoms that Alzheimer’s disease causes. Alzheimer’s disease ranks as the most common cause of dementia in the elderly population. Another effect caused by this can be the caregiver blaming themselves for feeling like they are failing to give proper care, which, in reality, can often be very far from the truth. If the caregiver does not receive help from anyone else, the task of watching over the victim becomes a daunting twenty-four hour task.
Stem cells are a type of unspecialized cells that can revive themselves through the process of cell division (Abdel-Salam and Oma, 2011). They have a phenomenal potential to differentiate into other specific cell types in a living organism. These cells can also be activated to turn into organ-specific cells or tissues with defined activity but only under specific experimental set-up. Stem cells have the ability to remain as they are or divide further to renew deteriorated and damaged tissue cells. Recently it has been discovered that stem cells can be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease but still a lot of clinical trials are being conducted to find a specific government approved treatment. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. The very first stages of Alzheimer’ include symptoms like confusion and using the right words while talking. As it gets on to later stages symptoms like loss of memory and mood swings start to appear (Begley et al., 2001). Any sort of stem cell treatment is not available to Alzheimer’s patients yet as researchers are still conducting new experiments. There are multiple neurons that get damaged by Alzheimer’s which makes the problem even more complex and different approach needs to be followed every time a clinical trial is conducted.
A field guide to getting lost’ is a book written by author Rebecca where she talks about life and all of the events large and small that can change how a person views the world. Through the words on the page the reader gains an idea of how Solnit thinks about the world and how her past has shaped her. Solnit is a wanderer who is always curious about what lies beyond the next horizon. The theme of wandering, and of the eternal quest runs throughout the first story and Solnit makes it clear that curiosity is the main factor that has shaped her outlook on life. Journeys of discovery are important in helping humanity discover themselves and it is this self discovery that Solnit focuses on in her stories.
People who suffer from Dementia lose their ability to do a daily task. They are unable to do shopping, prepare meals, deal with bills and money. They can forget to lock the door, turn off the cooker or water. They may have difficulties with their mobility and coordination. Person who has a disability experiences this same problem.
While the average life expectancy of the world’s population has increased, the number of detected dementia cases has commensurately risen to astonishing levels. Along with improved discovery of this disorder, new causes and treatments have been found, from which many innovative techniques have been developed towards the prevention of future incidences and reduction of the effects of this condition; however, the quest for these solutions have raised more questions than it has answered. Why do some develop this disorder, while others do not? Can early detection be achieved to reverse the processes or limit its effects? Further specifics on these topics have been categorized into three main sections, which include:
performance that involves, but is not limited to, a loss in at least 2 of the
“…a group of symptoms that are caused by changes in brain function. Dementia symptoms may include asking the same questions repeatedly; becoming lost in familiar places; being unable to follow directions; getting disoriented about time, people, and places; and neglecting personal safety, hygiene, and nutrition. People with dementia lose their abilities at different rates.”
Alzheimer’s disease is a complex illness that affects the brain tissue directly and undergoes gradual memory and behavioral changes which makes it difficult to diagnose. It is known to be the most common form of dementia and is irreversible. Over four million older Americans have Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to triple in the next twenty years as more people live into their eighties and nineties. (Johnson, 1989). There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s but throughout the past few years a lot of progress has been made.
Alzheimer’s disease or AD is an incurable disorder of the brain that results in loss of normal brain structure and function. In an AD brain, normal brain tissue is slowly replaced by structures called plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The plaques represent a naturally occurring sticky protein called beta amyloid and in an Alzheimer’s brain, sufferer’s tend to accumulate too much of this protein. Neurofibrillary tangles represent collapsed tau proteins which, in a normal brain along with microtubules, form a skeleton that maintains the shape of the nerve cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, the tau proteins break loose from their normal location and form tangles. Without the support of these molecules, nerve cells collapse and die. As normal brain structure is lost with progression of the disease, brain function also degenerates. Patients afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease display a gradual mental decline. Initially, and most apparently, there is a loss of short-term memory. Eventually, as a patient progresses to later stages of the disease, the brain becomes so damaged that patients can no longer communicate or recognize immediate family or even themselves. They have difficulty walking and standing and frequently fall. In the final stages, they lose bladder and bowel control and have difficulty with swallowing, frequently leaving them malnourished and dehydrated. Eventually, they are forced to remain bedridden and, without the help of life-prolonging measures provided in a hospital, die. However, this level of deterioration is severe and may take as long as twenty years. Because of the disease’s slow progress and its usual later start in a person’s life, a victim of AD will usually die first of natural causes. Under the objectives ...
Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia which is a brain disorder that impairs mental functioning. Dementia attacks the part of the brain which controls memory, language, and thought. It makes everyday tasks like remembering to brushing your teeth, or to pay your bills next to impossible to do, which is why so many people who are diagnosed with this disease are in complete care. This disease has different phases, the first being slight forgetfulness and then the persons emotions may heighten as well as language impairment, violent outbursts, loss of bladder control and from there it keeps getting worse until complete dysfunction of the brain occurs and eventually death, which most of the time is the result of infection.
Alzheimer's Disease Introduction to Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain. It was first described by the German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915). in 1905. This disease worsens with advancing age, although there is no evidence. that it is caused by the aging process.
Alzheimer's disorder is a mental disorder that affects your brain, and in particular the disorder affects the memory part of your brain. The disorder slows down the memory section of your brain, and as a result the number one symptom of Alzheimer's is memory loss. The disorder usually doesn't affect younger people, but instead affects people that are older than the age of sixty. The disorder can get so serious that the patient could loss there of about everything that has ever happened in their life. Patients usually loss their memory of their childhood during the most severe, intense, and last stage of the disorder. Alzheimer's disorder can also have a drastic effect on the patient's family, because during the disorder the patient can forget about their entire family.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, terminal, degenerative brain disease. It is the fourth leading cause of death in adults and currently affects over four million people in the United States. This number is expected to increase over the next several years as the baby boomers age, until it reaches fourteen million by the year 2025.
Wandering may seem harmless to others, but for the individual experiencing it, it may pose a serious risk for harm. Wandering can be classified as pacing back and forth, repetitive movements, or even trespassing into dangerous places. When a person wanders away and does not return this is consider elopement, which is the most dangerous type of wandering. Typically, wandering occurs in nursing homes, but may occur at home as well.