Alzheimer's and acetylcholine

Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease that takes the lives of many. There is someone diagnosed with Alzheimer’s around the world every seventy-two seconds. It is a form of dementia that slowly takes away the most basic of memories all the way to the memories of children, weddings, and even the saddest ones such as family death. The people that Alzheimer’s affects have a hard time with remembering tiny details and the disease begins with taking away the function of short term memory. This happens because the levels of acetylcholine are known to drop up to ninety percent beginning in the entorhinal cortex and moving into the hippocampus. Because of this, of the first signs of Alzheimer’s is the loss or decrease of the sense of smell, hence the entorhinal. The cells in the hippocampus called the hippocampal cells lose their connection and the result of this is the total loss of short-term memory. The neurons resting in the cerebral cortex then start to degenerate which in turn leads to the difficulty with the function of language and judgment. This also causes appetite to decline and then there is the loss of control over bowel movements. The disease will progress with many ending up not even recognizing their own children, much less being able to eat or bath or do simple tasks that they normally would not even have to think about.

Lack of acetylcholine is the main cause for loss of memory. In most people throughout the aging process, acetylcholine degenerates over time at a normal rate. In people affected by Alzheimer’s, acetylcholine degenerates at more than double the rate of people unaffected with this disease. Acetylcholine is a major neurotransmitter in the brain that allows communication of information from one nerve cell to an...

... middle of paper ...

...ther choline salt. Usually 500-2000 mg can be taken in three divided doses daily. Other supplements can also increase acetylcholine levels without increasing choline. Manganese taken 1-5 mg daily or Huperizine A is an herb that contains cholinesterase inhibitor.

Works Cited

http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/s1/chapter11.html#storage http://www.uccs.edu/biology/alzheimers-disease.html http://www.ehow.com/about_6385188_happens-ach-may-cause-alzheimer_s_.html http://www.dementiatoday.com/biochemistry-of-alzheimers-disease/ http://web.williams.edu/imput/synapse/pages/IA5.html http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/101/motm.do?momID=54 http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=137 http://www.embo.org/news/research-news/research-news-2013/alzheimer-s-disease-protein-controls-movement-in-mice http://www.progressivehealth.com/cognitive-function-acetylcholine.htm