How Alzheimer's Affects The Brain

Alzheimer’s is a genetic disorder, which means the DNA is that individual is messed up. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive mental deterioration that can occur in middle or older aged people, due to generalized degeneration of the brain. It is the most common cause of premature senility. This disease was discovered in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, in Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Alzheimer was examining the brain tissue of a woman who had recently passed and noticed that the tissue was changing. He also went over and examined the symptoms that this woman had that lead to her death, he came to conclusion and discovered a new disease now called Alzheimer’s Disease named after himself. Alzheimer’s is ranked as the sixth most leading cause of death

It is the most common cause of premature senility. When a person has Alzheimer’s it slowly destroys the person's memory, along with different skills such as thinking skills. When you have Alzheimer’s your brain tissue will start to shrink and keep shrinking while creating holes in your brain. Out of everything your brain is mostly affected which makes it harder for the brain to communicate with the rest of your body. This makes the healthy neurons in the brain lose connections with other healthy neurons and die. As more of these neurons die, it affects more of the brain which causes the brain to shrink. While this is happening abnormal deposits of proteins from the amyloid plaques and tau tangles are being deposited in the brain.

One cause of Alzheimer’s disease is high blood pressure. High blood pressure weakens the humans arteries which leads to strokes, and can cause dementia along with Alzheimer’s. Another cause is the shrinking of the brain due to brain cells dying leading to this disease. Genetics is one of the main causes of having this disease from it running through your family. The three main factors are age, family history, and genetics. The death of cells in the brain mainly causes this disease in the body. Alzheimer’s is a genetic mutation that is passed on to children and down the line in families that are affected by it or have Alzheimer’s disease. Many factors influence this particular disease such as head trauma, heart-head connection, and general health aging.