Alzheimer’s Disease
HCA/240
July 21, 2013
Dr. Alex Kadrie
Alzheimer’s Disease
In the year 1906 Dr. Alois Alzheimer first recorded certain abnormalities in the brain of a woman who died from dementia. The Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative and progressive form of dementia that seriously disrupts the daily living, such as their activities, behavior, and there moods (chapter 14, page 395). The worst thing about Alzheimer’s is that it can only be diagnosed only by autopsy, what we would have to do is to recognize the disease at an early stage. This is a very sad disease I have been working with Alzheimer’s patients for years, and just to see them go down as the disease progresses is so sad, they forget how to even to put their own shoes on we have to cue them to eat, they have mood swings one day they will love you the next day they are ready to hit you.
The physical finding for this disease is degeneration of neurons and plaque formation on and around the neurons. Plaques or the deposits of the proteins build up around neurons and interrupt the communication between the neurons by neurotransmitter. When you get an abnormal collections of proteins form neurofibrillatory tangles that are detected by performing brain scans. The acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter that is most affected by the Alzheimer’s disease. When there is decreases in acetylcholine are correlated with memory loss, alterations in norepinephrine, GABA and serotonin have been documented and they may play a role in mood, behavior and aggression (chapter 14, page 395).
There are no real test that can be done today that tells if someone has the Alzheimer’s disease, what the doctor may see is just the symptoms that would come from test that they would perform such as the physical and neurological exam which is the reflexes, muscle tone and strength, the ability to get up out of a chair and to walk across a room, the sense of sight and hearing, there coordination, and there balance. Your doctor may perform test on their mental status to assess their memory and there thinking skills. Than the doctor may have extensive assessment of there thinking and there memory. Then there are cat scans, and magnetic resonance imaging that can be done as well. But really there is not a real way to be able to tell how far it has progressed not until death. I have a resident that had an aneurism and now she has dementia from it the doctor says and she is very young.
The concept of psychosocial intervention has benefited the management of a stroke, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and obesity, and there are other conditions (com www.primarypsychiatry). having a healthy lifestyle, and to be stress free, having a good diet, taking vitamins, exercise, may help to prevent or even delay this disease and help you to maintain good health. We can use