Understanding Alzheimer's: A Foreseeable Epidemic

The horrible feeling of forgetting a coworker’s or an acquaintance’s name may be one of the most frustrating things a person can experience. This is a fact that many patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s face on a reoccurring basis. Loss of memory is a common part of the aging process and is sometimes referred to as dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and is not reversible in this day and age. In fact, 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases are Alzheimer’s and in 2015 more than 5.1 million cases age 65 or older were reported (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). The most startling statistic is that by 2050, 14 million Americans and 81 million worldwide cases are expected (Wierenga & Bondi, 2011). While dementia is a part of Alzheimer’s it also affects an afflicted patient ability to perform day to day tasks, increased mood swings, and in the later stages, the ability to even walk or care for themselves. This horrible disease

What Dr. Alzheimer discovered in the brain of Auguste were small clumps of hard proteins and tangle fibers called beta-amyloid peptides and tau tangles respectively, at the end of nerve cells. The peptides bundle up on the exterior of brain nerve cells and disrupt the flow of electrical signals between neurons, while the fibers choke neurons to death. This is why Alzheimer’s slowly progresses unlike a brain injury such as a stroke that immediately destroys brain tissue. An Alzheimer’s diagnosis can only be confirmed by a post mortem examination under a microscope just like Dr. Alzheimer’s discovery of the diseases. However with current technology and differential diagnosis by a physician, they can provide, with confidence whether dementia is due to Alzheimer’s. The physician will order a battery of test and will take a medical history to eliminate other possible preventable and reversible causes for dementia like, overuse of alcohol, drug interactions, or thyroid