Basics About Alzheimer’s Disease
Written By: Felicia Chen
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, incurable brain disorder that ravages a human’s memory and ability to think. In time, it will also make it more difficult to perform even the most basic of tasks. Symptoms will begin to show up in a person’s mid-60s when they have late-onset Alzheimer’s. Early-onset Alzheimer’s, on the other hand, occurs between the ages of 30 and 60, and is seen as the more uncommon version of this disease.
In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer caught sight of a woman who had changes occurring in her brain tissue. She suffered from memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior. After she passed, Dr. Alzheimer developed a fascination with these changes and decided to perform a closer inspection of her brain. What he discovered was various sets of unusual clumps and tangled bundles. Later on, these would come to be known as amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
Plaques and tangles like the ones found in the woman are among some of the principal characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease. Another common one is the loss of connection between neurons, which carry messages throughout the brain. Besides these, though, there are a number of other intricate changes occurring in the brain that are considered to be a part of the disease. This damage first emerges in the hippocampus, the portion responsible for memory. As neurons die off, additional parts of the brain are affected. In fact, by the final stage of Alzheimer’s, the damage will become widespread and the brain tissue will have shrunk significantly.
A common first sign that someone has Alzheimer’s is having memory issues. A decline in aspects of thinking, such as finding the right words to say, visual difficulties, and impaired reasoning or judgment, may also further signal very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a condition that can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s too. Nonetheless, not everyone with MCI will develop the disease.
People with this disorder can have a hard time doing routine tasks like driving and cooking for themselves. They may also ask questions repeatedly without even noticing, get lost a lot, lose their belongings, and find ordinary things perplexing. As the disease progresses and gets worse, they may have their emotions all over the place; they may feel worried, angry, or even violent.
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