Alzheimer's disease Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Alzheimer's disease - Essay Example lois Alzheimer first detected and described this disease in 1907 in Auguste Deter, a middle aged woman who was diagnosed with the dementia and some disorders in her brain function. Untill 1970s this disease defined as a rare condition that affect old people, but Robert Katzman proved that Alzheimer`s disease is not a normal part of aging and it is the same condition as senile dementia. The statistic shows that Alzheimer`s disease affected approximately 26.6 million of people in 2006. Clinical trials predict that prevalence of the Alzheimer`s will be 1 out of 85 people by 2050 worldwide. (Web MD, 2014) There are several types of Alzheimer`s disease depending on the severity. They include mild and moderate Alzheimer`s disease. Mild Alzheimer`s is an early stage of this disease that characterized with temporary memory loss. Patients at this stage usually have problems with complicated tasks, forget where they put their things, get lost, cannot find words to explain their thoughts and have changeable mood. People can normally survive with this type of Alzheimer`s but they required appropriate treatment to reduce possible symptoms. (FÃ ¶rstl H, 1999) Neuropsychological testing can detect this type of Alzheimer`s disease because the symptoms can be confusing with aging. Moderate Alzheimer`s is the most complicated and longest stage of the disease. It is progressive and can leads to overall memory lost. Patients with this type of Alzheimer`s usually do not remember their biography, family, friends and have problems with thinking and language. In this stage patient`s cannot normally live without help of the caregivers and treatment. It can last for years and finally lead to death. People with Alzheimer`s disease can live approximately 7 years after diagnosis. Only in 3% of all Alzheimer`s cases patients lived for 14 years after diagnosis. (Wenk GL,2003) At the cellular level Alzheimer`s disease mainly affect neurons in the cerebral cortex. Neurons lose their ability to