Alzheimer’s Disease: The Importance of Public Awareness Essay -- Alzhei

Imagine greeting your grandmother and being met with a blank stare. teleph 1 intimately how it would feel to watch as your father forgets how to drive or dress himself. Picture your own mother crying out for her prospicient dead parents and siblings. Try to envision the look on a love ones salute as you tell them that they can no longer live at home alone. Now put yourself in their place-- slowly losing your freedom, your memory, and your very identity. Welcome to the world of Alzheimers disease. This is the reality that nearly fifteen million caregivers and over five million patients must face every day. Public awareness must be raised about Alzheimers disease and the people it affects.Alzheimers disease was discovered in 1906 by German physician Alois Alzheimer. While studying the biopsy of the outlook of a fifty-five year old woman who had suffered some type of backbreaking dementia, he noticed some aberrations in her judgement structure. The brain appeared shrun ken, with blown-up crevasses in the gray matter. Over a century later, we now write out that Alzheimers is caused by a mixture of chemical and cellular brain abnormalities and the breaking down of cells in the mind. Most of the defects occur in the rational cortex, which is the outer gray matter of the brain and the center of most human-like brain functions like memory, language, and thought. About ten percent of the nerves in the cerebral cortex die as the disease progresses, causing the person to drop away previously created synapses (connections between nerve cells). Neurofibrillary tangles, which are abnormally twisted and tough strands within nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, also contribute to the cognitive impairment. Nerve cells in the brain lose the ability to create vita... ... a disorder that plays a huge role in the United States, and one that needs to be recognized. Public awareness of Alzheimers will cause research to increase, more support to be made avail able to those now affected, financial solutions to be found, and an overall increase in understanding and compassion. By informing people about Alzheimers and its consequences, we can truly get off to battle this devastating disease.Works CitedAlzheimers Association. 2011 Alzheimers Disease Facts and Figures. Annual Report, Washington Alzheimers Association, 2011.August, capital of Minnesota Nordstrom. Brain Function. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.Check, William A. Alzheimers Disease. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.Harmon, Dan. Life aside of Focus Alzheimers Disease and Related Disorders. Philadelphia Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.