Alzheimer Disease



For my ethnography project I have chosen the disease Alzheimer, because I work in the nursing field. I saw a lot of elderly people suffer from this disease, which causes memory loss and decreases the quality of life. Alzheimer's disease is a brain disorder and the most common type of dementia which causes loss of memory. People suffering from this disease are more vulnerable to develop impairment in intellectual activities, as in, reasoning, planning and developing perceptions about something which ultimately leads to a gradual change in behavior and personality. Alzheimer's disease is considered to be the most dangerous disease of the central nervous system. This disease has characteristics of mental ability loss (memory, speech, logical thinking). The main symptoms of increase in Alzheimer's disease arise after the age of 65. It is the fact the rate of people suffering from this disease is no too much but still is the essential reason of elderly dementia. This disease brings psychological pressure among the family members.

It is a progressive disease and people crossing the age of 70 are more likely to catch it in routine cases. However, there are cases where people have lived for 100 years, but, have not suffered from it. According to current statistics, 60-80 percent of people suffering from dementia has Alzheimer's disease and is the fourth major reason of deaths in the United States. In addition to this, the likelihood of Alzheimer's occurrence is more in women as compared to men. One major reason used to justify this statement is that the average life of women is longer than men.

Personally, I believe that the progression of Alzheimer's in a person can be affected by themselves alone. A person who is healthy and lives an easy and stress-free lifestyle is much happier than one who is unhealthy and is surrounded by a stressful environment. More research should be done into this factor that contributes to the speed that Alzheimer's completely takes over its victim. A person who is less stressful has a more relaxed mind; and does not over-exert their brain power, but at the same time they are challenged intellectually; and this in turn works the beneficial parts of the brain (Gelb, pp.1393-1400).

Another beneficial area of research into the prevention and hampering of the progression of Alzheimer's is the study of using the nerve growth hormone to restore damaged brain tissue. This research and use of this technique would be extremely beneficial; it not only stops the progress of the disease but could also restore tissue that had been destroyed by Alzheimer's. The use of gene cells is something that is only possible because of new advances in technology and medical discovery. Now that we have these new techniques for research; and discovery we are able to more effectively cure; and prevent diseases that before had been unpreventable. Included in these is, of course, Alzheimer's (Harmon, pp. 9).

The use of the gene cell in restoring brain tissue destroyed by Alzheimer's can also be ...