The Direct Cause Of Alzheimer's Disease

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Dementia is a broad term for diseases that affect the brain. Symptoms of dementia include the loss of cognitive functioning such as reasoning, thinking, and memory. Dementia can take away from the functionality of a person’s daily life. It currently affects more than 35 million people in the world and that number is growing (4). The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a slow degenerative process, one that can eventually prevent someone from completing the simplest of tasks. This disease usually affects the older population and is so far found to be irreversible, meaning there is no cure. The beginning symptoms of Alzheimer’s are usually mistaken for the regular symptoms of old age. However, they then …show more content…
The direct cause of Alzheimer’s disease has been the source of many studies. Scientist believe that genetics and multiple genes play a large role in this disease. They also have found that certain plaques and tangles are found in the brain of those affected with this disease. These plaques are deposits of amyloid beta in the grey matter of the brain. They have neurodegenerative structures and are generally associated with aging. They are called Beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and the brains of Alzheimer’s patients are composed of large numbers of them. However, in Alzheimer’s patients they are composed of neurotoxic amyloid beta peptides which are a result from a protein called amyloid precursor protein (APP) (5). Even with these findings, there is still so much that is not understood about Alzheimer’s disease. However, Aβ plaques have become the subject of a study done by Zane Jaunmuktane and his colleagues. In their article, they write about evidence for human transmission of Alzheimer’s. Maybe their findings can bring us a little bit closer to finding out more about this terrible disease and set a path for a probable …show more content…
However, learning just a little more about this disease can help in finding a potential treatment. Today, the only suggestions to prolong the stages of Alzheimer’s is staying physically active, keeping your mind sharp, and eating healthy. With this recent study, the world now knows just a little more about this disease. Questions are posed that were not before, bringing about new ways to study it. Could Alzheimer’s be treated like a prion disease? Other research on prion diseases in animals show that the misfolded proteins in the brains can be cleared away with the use of certain drugs. Maybe similar drugs could be able to prolong or even treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s (2). With Jaunmuktane and his colleagues’ findings, there have also been concerns with how neurosurgies are being done. Human growth hormone injections are no longer taken from the pituitary glands of cadavers anymore, but there are still concerns with decontamination of medical instruments. If Alzheimer’s can be tranferred like prions, which stick to metals, then surgeons have to be very meticulous in their cleaning of instruments more so then they were before (1). Alzheimer’s as of today is still a very unknown disease. Even with these findings, we are no where closer to a probable treatment. While these findings were eye opening to the medical world, there still needs to be more
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