What is Alzheimer’s Disease?

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Definition of Alzheimer’s Disease

 

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological disorder where the death of brain cells triggers amnesia and cognitive decrease. A neurodegenerative sort of dementia, the condition begins moderate and gets gradually even worse.

Types of Dementia

Like all types of dementia, Alzheimer’s dissease is triggered by brain cell death. Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative condition, which means there is progressive brain cell death that occurs over a course of time.

Obviously if that cell death is because of little strokes or low blood flow that is actually more of a stroke. Many times that distinction is difficult to make with subtle vascular occasions. That difference becomes an issue about the anticipated efficacy of the medicines that are focused on increasing acetyl choline in the brain like Donepezil (Brand Aricept). It is thought that increased concentrations of acetyl choline are responsible for the enhancement seen throughout therapy with donepezil.

Diagnostic confusion affects Alzheimer’s treatment.

One possible reason for the restricted impact over all of those given Aricept is that in fact they have strokes or a substantial part of vascular dementia which would not be expected to enhance.

Pathological Changes in Alzheimer’s

The total brain size reduces with Alzheimer’s – the cells has considerably less afferent neuron and connections.

Nerve cells (neurons) in the brain. In Alzheimer’s, there are tiny ‘plaques’ and ‘tangles’ in between and within brain cells.

While they can not be seen or tested in the living brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease, postmortem/autopsy will always show small additions in the nerve cells, called plaques and tangles:.

Plaques are chosen from in between the dying cells in the brain – from the accumulation of a protein called beta-amyloid (you may hear the term “amyloid plaques”).

The tangles are within the brain neurons – from a disintegration of another protein, called tau.

While they think plaques and tangles are part of the picture it is yet unidentified how lots of plaques and tangles correlate with the quantity, kind, and degrees of amnesia, loss of adl’s, or any of a much broader array of signs and signs.

Likewise it is extremely fascinating to note that most regular 80 year olds who die from other causes but who had no or little memory loss at age 80 have considerable varieties of plaques and tangles at autopsy. Therefore, it is very tough to measure and differentiate how many plaques per high powered field on a microscope cause an offered level of signs and symptoms in each individual patient.

All of these make it difficult to accurately define Alzheimer disease and the stages of Alzheimers Disease.

 

 Alzheimer’s  Educational Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimers

Alzheimer’s foundation of America

Alzheimer’s Association

 

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Dr Shawn McGivney

 

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