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Alzheimer's Disease Research Paper

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“Alzheimer’s Disease is an incurable disease that strips you from your memory and other functions used in daily life." The brain cells degenerates and dies, which result in the patient forgetting how to perform simple daily functions like eat, sleep, walk, or talk. The size of the brain of someone with Alzheimer’s will shrink because the tissue has fewer nerve cell and connections. Studies have shown that every 67 seconds someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. German Physician Alois first discovered Alzheimer’s in 1906. Alois was a scientist who devoted his time in discovering different symptoms and microscopic changes in the brain. He was given a patient that had changes in her brain tissue and had died from an unusual mental illness. Some …show more content…

She stated that her memory has gotten worse and is ruining her life. She had to quit her job and her husband was spending more time taking care of her. The neurologic exam done by the doctor shows that she has contracted buccolingual and limb apraxia. Referring back to figure 5, the patient has forgotten where to place the hands of the clock and has 15 numerals. She was then diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. The patient returned one year later to be assessed by an Alzheimer’s specialist. The results showed that her symptoms had worsened; she was constantly monitored while in the kitchen and in financial affairs. She scored a 24/30 on her Mini-Mental Status exam and her clock drawing got worse. The doctor then confirmed she was in stage 4 on the seven stage of Global Deterioration scale (seen on Figure 6). The patient returned for a final time and it was present that her situation had gotten even worse. She was forgetting to give phone messages and stopped cooking afraid of burning down the house. Her score on the Mini-Mental Status exam decreased to a 20/30 and her GDS stage is at a 5. The doctor kept records of the patient’s clinical reports, treatments, and patients management at home. He suggested that the patient writes down any drastic changes in her mental state. He also stated that in order for the diagnoses of Alzheimer’s to be made, the patient’s symptoms has to show a sign of …show more content…

These treatments have medicines that enhance the chemicals in the brain that are responsible for transferring information from one cell to another, but they don’t prevent the death of brain cells. Recently, scientists are trying a new treatment called “recruiting the immune system”. This treatment uses drugs known as “ monoclonal antibodies” which prevents “ antibodies from clumping into plaques and clear the body of beta-amyloid that forms in the brain”. They mimic and enhance the antibodies that your body naturally makes to replace the ones that have died. These Monoclonal antibodies make it easier for the immune system to fight off the drug. In the future, Scientist hope to treat Alzheimer’s with a combination of medications that will cure the disease. Similar to the ones used to fight off cancer. “Alzheimer’s and other dementias has cost the nation $226 billion dollars per year. And someone diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia will receive $9.7 billion dollars in additional health care. The search to cure Alzheimer’s is still going on

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