Alzheimer's Disease College Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Alzheimer's Disease College - Essay Example The first thing about Alzheimer's is that it is a progressive disease i.e. once Alzheimer's occurs in a body it keeps on developing for example in the early stages of Alzheimer's a person would only start forgetting recent events or names of people that he or she met recently but as the disease progresses it gets severe and hence as a result the person starts forgetting routine activities as well such as how to brush ones teeth, in the later stages people even forget the names of their family members and also the way to their home, they tend to roam about with no sense of direction or purpose, 1since Alzheimer's is a progressive disease it is a fatal disease as well, people usually die off the infections caused by Alzheimer's within the brain. Alzheimer's is a form of dementia, dementia refers to the loss of memory but it needs to be understood that Alzheimer's is a totally different form of dementia and there are causes that can be cured in certain cases and in certain cases the dem entia is irreversible i.e. the loss in memory is permanent and there is no known cure for that particular type of dementia, unfortunately Alzheimer's falls under the category of dementia that cannot be cured and research is being conducted on how to cure Alzheimer's but scientists the world over are still clueless. 2This paper will systematically divide the issue at hand into categories and would tackle each category at a time but in an integrated manner. Prevention: The first and the foremost question that needs to be tackled is of the prevention of this disease, there are basically two age categories that have dementia, one is the age group from 30-65 and basically this type of dementia or Alzheimer's is due to ones genetic conditions or previous family history, this is known as the early onset, people who have dementia in the early on set may be in any stage the early, middle or late. 3The second type is the late on set, in late on set the most important factor is age, early on set occurs in people from 65+ and they may have no history of dementia or Alzheimer's in their family. Research has shown that people who have much more active brains reduce the risks of having Alzheimer's by 30-40%, this research was carried out on people related to religious services and it was found that priests or fathers that involved in activities like chess and other games where their mind was actively used, had lower chances of contracting the disease rather tha n people who did not. No medications have yet been developed to prevent dementia or Alzheimer's but an active brain certainly reduces the chances, other than this scientists and researchers also recommend that people take care of their general health levels as well to prevent dementia, although no direct link has been found with blood pressure or diabetics it is important that people keep these in check so that the risk of a damage to the brain reduces significantly. Scientists have been able to recognize that Alzheimer's causes the brain cells to die but they have not, as yet, been able to pin point any reason why this occurs and hence prevention can not take place due to this reason but the factors mentioned above do help to a certain degree in helping to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. Causes and Risk Factors: The risk factors that