Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Disease

Introduction

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting over 5 million Americans according to statistics provided by the Alzheimer's Association for the year 2009. Characterized by memory loss, personality changes, behavioral symptoms, and functional decline, AD is a deficit in communication at all levels ranging from cellular to interpersonal communications. This paper discusses Alzheimer's disease in a holistic context with reference to the available literature published in different journals and magazines on health and diseases.

Discussion

Anatomical and functional differences in the brains of men and women have been reported (Swaab, et.al, 2001). These gender differences may be related not only to reproductive function and sexual identity and orientation, but also to different prevalence and patterns of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders between the two sexes; men and women in fact tend to develop different diseases and often show different courses of the same pathological condition (Pian, 2003). Among the main neurological diseases, the incidence of Parkinson's disease is greater in men (Haaxma, et.al, 2007), who also seem to present stronger motor impairment than women. The incidence of multiple sclerosis is greater in women (Koch-Henriksen & Sorensen, 2010), who, however, show a more benign course of the disease (Confavreux, et.al, 2003). Differences between sexes in stroke incidence, prevalence, mortality and outcomes are also well known (Persky, 2010).

Since its description by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, were established as hallmarks of AD, the formation of senile plaques, composed of aggregated ß-amyloid peptide (Aß) and the appearance of neurofibrillary tangles due to hyperphosphorylated tau protein, together neuronal degeneration, synapse loss, damage vasculature and reactive gliosis, which correlates with cognitive impairment and memory loss as well as cellular and molecular changes.

So far there are no specific laboratory tests or imaging, enabling the EA in life, and because other diseases can cause memory loss, a definitive diagnosis is to determine the EA, is an examination postmortem brain to definitively establish that dementia is Alzheimer's type (Mattson, 2004). It is therefore very important to have different lines of research that are interested in determining the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of disease (Panizzon, et.al, 2011).

While there are references to behavioral changes as early as ancient or classic Greek literature, dementia was thought to be a normal change of aging. It was not until 1906 that Alois Alzheimer first identified Alzheimer's disease as a rare form of “senile dementia” occurring in younger adults. Over the years, research has shown that the disease can affect adults of any age yet increases in prevalence with aging. At age 55, from 9% to 17% of people will have developed ADRD while roughly half of people age 85 have developed dementia (Goddard, et.al 2004).

Cellular communication:

A key concept in AD, cellular communication occurs when stimulated neurons produce an electrical charge that travels across synapses by producing neurotransmitters. Each neuron has up to 15,000 synapses. In AD, researchers see the presence of neurofibrillary tangles, which are abnormal collections of tau protein found within neurons. Tau normally binds to microtubules, which support the ...