Alzheimer's Disease

What is Alzheimer's Disease?

It is a common form a memory loss called dementia. Having dementia affects other intellectual abilities and makes everyday life difficult. Alzheimer's kills brains cells over time which causes the loss of memory and the condition progressively worsens. (AA)

What Causes Alzheimer's Disease?

There is still confusion among scientists about how Alzheimer's begins and why. Some believe it originates in the plagues and tangles in the brain. Plaques are a protein build up between nerve cells and tangles form inside cells that are dying. Everyone develops these but Alzheimer's patients have a lot more of them. Scientists have yet to find the connection between this factor and the disease but some agree that they may be blocking communication of cells. By doing this, it may be distrupting the funcitons needed for a cell to survive. (AA)

There are other doctors who believe that the plaques and tangles have nothing do with memory loss. Scientist, Karen Hsiao Ashe, have found just that. Instead, her and her team believe that the proteins forming the plaques and tangles are the cause of memory loss. They managed to isolate this protein that they named A beta-star and injected it into healthy rats. The rats showed the beginning signs of Alzheimer's. Ashe joined teams with another doctor, Mayo Clinic's Ronald Peterson. They are developing a test that will safely extract the A beta-star from Alzheimer's patients to see if this is true in humans as well. (Mettner)

The Likelihood of Developing Alzheimer's Disease

About 4.5 million people have Alzheimer's Disease in the United States today. Estimates from the Alzheimer's Association say that these numbers could quadruple in the next 50 years.

Evidence shows that family members of loved ones that have Alzheimer's are more at risk at getting it. There is also a "risk gene" that may be involved in having Alzheimer's. Inheriting a copy of gene APOE-e4 increases your risk. Inheriting a copy from both parents increases the risks even more. Not only does this gene increase the risk, it also shows the appereance of Alzheimer's at a younger age.

There are also rare genes that directly cause the disease and when this happens it's called "familial Alzheimer's disease." Less than 5% of Alzheimer's cases are caused by this, but it does happen. (AA)

Symptoms

There are many different symptoms of AD according to the book "The 36-Hour Day":

-Memory Loss: walking into situations or just everyday life is described as walking into a movie right in the middle of it

-Catastrophic Reactions: sometimes situations may overwhelm the AD patient and cause them to overreact

-Combativeness: an extreme catastrophic reaction, includes hitting, punching, pinching, yelling, etc.

-Speech and Communication: have problems with expressing themselves properly

(Mace, Rabins 36-45)

Treatments

This is a topic that leads to alot of disagreement among doctors and scientists. While there is not cure for Alzheimer's Disease, there may be some treatments that can improve some of its symptoms. There are also treatments that are believed by alot of people to help, but actually do not. Among these treatments are:

*Cholinsterase Inhibitors

(Donepezil, Galantamine, Rivastigimine)

*Ginkgo Biloba

*Vitamin E

*Memantine

*Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Cholinsterase Inhibitors include donepezil, galantamine and rivastigimine. In a study done by Doctors Dennis Seow and Serge Gauthier, donzepezil significantly delayed the progression of the disease in the first year, over a 3 year period. They also found that rivastigmine and galantamine did not do much at all at slowing down the transition from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's. (Gauthier, Seow)

Ginkgo Biloba works as an antioxidant and has been suggested to increase the overall bloodflow to the brain. This could improve memory, attention and overall cognitive performance in an individual. The results from studies have been inconsistent. Some studies show improvements and others do not. The ones that do show signs of improvement are comparable to a donepezil treatment.(Gauthier, Seow)

Viatmin E According to The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry there is no evidence that it slows the progression of the disease. In fact, in experimenting with high doses of viatmin E in patients, the rate of cardiovascular problems arose so this treatment has become unpopular among doctors and scientists. (Gauthier, Seow)

Memantine is used in the severe cases of the disease. Patients in these studies improve overall cognitive health but their behavioral problems remained the same.The FDA has not approved the use of this drug for mild to moderate patients. (Gauthier, Seow)

Omega-3 Fatty Acids are found in fish and can be good for the heart. It is also suggested that it improves the conditions of an Alzheimer's patient. A group of doctors from Sweden found that these fatty acids did not have an effect on the patients except for a slight postive effects on depression. Depression is found very commonly among AD patients. (Basun et al.)

Personal Stories

Alzheimer's Disease not only affects its patient, but the patients' families and friends. It is a difficult thing to deal with and can be painful for them as well. Here are a few of their expriences.

"It was not unlike watching a nuclear bomb go off. First, there was the impact, followed by a cascading geyser of energay that mushroomed into an ever-expanding fire cloud. Only in this case, the emotional energy imploded, disfiguring her inner slef and prventin anyone from connecting with or soothing her."

(Heinrich)-Describing a woman who had an overreaction to her failing abilities to complete an everday task.

"Mrs. Frank was having her hair done. The beautician was workin on the back of her head and Mrs. Frank kept trying to turn around. When this happened the beautician would turn Mrs. Frank's head back. Then Mrs. Franks began batting at the beautician's hands. She looked as if she were about to cry. Finally, Mrs. Franks turned around in the chair and hit the beautician." (Mace & Rabins, 43)

"Bill said a whole sentence yesterday, but today I can't understand a thing he says." (Mace & Rabins, 58)

-A wife describing the ups and downs of living with a husband who has AD.