Alzheimer’s Disease Definition And General Overview: Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and irreversible neurological disorder of the brain. This occurs in older people between the ages of 60 and above. In Alzheimer’s disease, gradual destruction and death of brain cells. It causes loss of thinking skill, cognitive skill, memory and motor skills. AD is considered as the most common cause of dementia. And accounts for 60-80% dementia cases in older people.
Dementia
Dementia is a condition in which the brain’s cognitive, social and intellectual abilities decline. This occurs slowly to such an extent, that it affects the daily activities of a person. And life functions in such people Are affected by this disease. Depending on the type of brain function changes in a person, causes of dementia may vary.
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Types of dementia
There are many types of dementia observed in people like:-
- Lewy body dementia
- vascular dementia and,
- frontotemporal dementia.
Mixed dementia commonly occur and seen in public. This dementia is a combination of two or more disorder.
Age
Alzheimer’s disease generally begins after the age of 60 years. The risk of having it increases with increase in age. Also is higher in families with a history of this disease. In some cases, It may start early before the age of 60 years. It is not compulsory that it should occur at later years of life as it is not a normal part of ageing. Around 50% of people over the age of 80 years may get affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s affects the hippocampus region of the brain. Which is responsible for memory and motor skills of a person. Alzheimer’s disease is characterised by impairments.
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Symptoms
- Memory loss
- disturbance in reasoning
- planning
- the problem in language
- trouble in writing and reading
- recognition issues and difficulty in performing daily activities
- loss of motor skills such as combing hairs, brushing the teeth, Picking up an object etc.
Founder
This disease is named after Dr Alois Alzheimer. Unusual changes in the brain of a lady who dies because of mental illness. She was having symptoms such as language problem, memory loss and unusual behaviour. Abnormal clumps (amyloid plaques) and tangled bundle fibres (neurofibrillary or tau) and also loss of connection between brain cells (neurons) were found in her brain when he examined her brain after she died.
How Brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease?
Scientists further research on complex brain changes. In the beginning and during the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. As a result, the damage to the brain occurs at a pre-clinical stage. However, the onset of symptoms such as loss of memory and cognitive skills are not present. Above all, a person seems free of symptoms. But during this stage, abnormal and toxic changes start. Like deposition of amyloid plaques, tangling of bundle fibres and loss of connection between brain cells. And once the healthy neurons lost the connection they stop functioning and die.
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Affected Areas
The damage to the brain starts in the hippocampus region. This gradually spreads to other parts. At the end of the final stage of Alzheimer’s, most of the brain cells get damaged and tangling. The brain area gets shrink.
Facts about Alzheimer’s disease
- This disease is an incurable and irreversible brain disease and the risk worsen over age and time.
- Alzheimer’s disease mostly starts at the age of 60 years. It’s not necessary for every individual. Neither it is a normal part of ageing.
- It is the most common cause of dementia in the U.S and other countries in the world.
- An estimated of about 5.3 million people of all ages in America in which almost 2/3 is women are having Alzheimer’s Disease
- The estimation is 5.1 million people of age 65 and above and approximately 200,000 people of the age under 65 years are having this disease.
- In the US one person develops this disease in every 67 seconds.
- An estimation says that 1 in every 3 senior citizens dies of this disease and other dementias.
- The disease and other dementias cost the nation (US) around $226 billion per year.
- As the population increases, this disease becomes the major cause of death among people.
- The disease affects approximately 850,000 people in the UK.
- The hiring of caregivers along with dementia treatment costs around 9.7 billion dollars.
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