Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, a medical condition that disrupts the way the brain works. It is a condition of unknown origin that causes gradual loss of abilities in memory, thinking, reasoning, judgment, orientation and concentration. It usually occurs in the elderly population starting around the age of 65 years old. As the individual gets older, the risk of developing AD becomes greater. There are an estimated number of two million victims of this painful disease and the number continues to go up. Even though there is no physical pain associated with this disease, there are a great deal of emotional pain from both family and friends of the patient (Gruetzner 1988). Doctor Alois Alzheimer is whom Alzheimer's Disease is named for. He was the one responsible for the first discovery of the disease in 1906. He had performed an autopsy on a 51-year-old woman who had passed away from what was believed to be an unusual mental illness. She had displayed signs of problems with her memory and disorientation. Upon his surgery, he found abnormal clumps in what is now called senile or neuritic plaques and tangled bundles of fibers called neurofibrillary tangles (Alzheimer Facts). These fibers we
re found in large numbers in the cytoplasm of nerve cells. To Alzheimer, it seemed that that must have been interfering with the proper function of healthy cells. The results of the findings were published and through the years, more research was done, but the importance of the disease was not yet recognized. Diagnosis of AD is a complicated process. There are specialized centers with doctors that can diagnosis probable AD correctly 80 to 90 percent of the time. The one way to tell accurately whether or not the patient has the disease is by taking a piece of the brain tissue to study, but this is too dangerous a process to practice on those that are still alive. Usually, doctors wait until the patient has passed away and perform an autopsy. Doctors use a mixture of basic medical test, neuropsychological test and brain scans to do their best to accurately diagnosis. The diagnostic procedure usually takes more then a day on an outpatient basis. When the doctors first meet with the patient and their family, a complete medical history will be completed. Questions about the person's general health and past medical problems are asked. It is also important that any possible problems with carrying out daily activities are present. Any past medical history w
Some common words found in the essay are:
Diagnosis AD, Alzheimer's Disease, Disease AD, Neuroscience Kids, Tomography CAT, Association Tests, Patients AD, alzheimer's disease, diagnosis probable, signs ad, diagnosis ad, basic medical, medical history, memory loss, past medical, cerebrospinal fluid,
Approximate Word count = 857
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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