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Alzheimer’s Disease in Alzheimer’s Facilities:
Alzheimer’s is a degenerative disease which progressively assaults the brain and hinders memory capabilities. The acts of thinking and reasoning are also affected by Alzheimer’s disease which is the most common form of dementia.
Discovered by Alois Azheimer in 1906 while studying the brain of a woman having suffered from dementia before her death.
His main discovery was similar to plaque mixed in the neurons of her brain. These plaques were later called amyloid plaques which are still known as the main origin of Alzheimer’s disease.
Beta-amyloid are proteins which are of the abnormal type and which attack the brain’s nerve cells by poisoning them, thus resulting in Alzheimer’s disease and institutionalization in an Alzheimer’s Facility. Science still only has theories about how these proteins are created by the body.
Age is the Greatest Risk Factor in Alzheimer’s Disease.
The main factor in developing Alzheimer’s disease is your age. Though Alzheimer’s disease can be developed at any age, sometimes as early as in the late thirties, the risk grows expodentially after your sixty-fifth birthday. In fact, your chances of developing Alzheimer’s is up to 50% when you reach 80 years old. Risks of accidents are greatly reduced by moving the patient to an Alzheimer’s facility.
The Other Risk Factors of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease.
Your genetics, stress, injury, poor physical activity level and inadequate diet are all factors which increase your risk of being a victim of Alzheimer’s disease.
Race Factors of Alzheimer’s Disease.
In 1998, the Alzheimer’s Association reported a study which was conducted on one thousand people in New York demonstrated that African Americans and Hispanics were more likely to get hit by Alzheimer’s than were Caucasians. This explains why we find only around 30% of Caucasians in Alzheimer’s facilities.
Diagnosing Alzheimer’s.
So far, the only way to get a 100% positive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is through an autopsy the brain tissue. There are, however, less drastic ways of establishing a relatively accurate diagnosis, partly by identifying Alzheimer’s most obvious symptoms and partly by eliminating all other causes for dementia. Observation by specialists in an Alzheimer’s facility also helps.
Research into Alzheimer’s.
Since babyboomers are aging, the actual number of Azheimer’s cases being treated in Alzheimer’s facilities will be increasing rapidly in Southern California. This has a major impact in all media coverage which leads to research subventions and advancements.
Research is advancing both through drugs to slow down the brain’s deterioration and to alleviate Alzheimer’s symptoms. The already diagnosed, often being treated in Alzheimer’s facilities, can also hope for better days as they are also going to take advantage of scientific advancements.
Funding for Alzheimer’s Disease Research.
Research into Alzheimer’s disease and it’s effects on people living in Alzheimer’s facilities is mostly financed through the federal government, the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer’s Association (private donations).
The Alzheimer’s Association is the largest voluntary health organization in the US and helps Alzheimer’s sufferers through it’s local chapters by giving support services, information and referral services to the families of the 75% of sufferers who still live at home as well as to those living in an Alzheimer’s facility.
When Alzheimer’s hits close to home.
All families react differently when faced with the fact that a loved one was hit by the disease.
For a couple, it might be noticing that their spouse is behaving in a different or weird way, has a hard time performing simple usual tasks or has frequent memory lapses.
Symptoms are often noticed in the same manner by extended family members who see that their loved one has lost some of their mental abilities since the last time they met.
The situation is different for elderly who live on their own and don’t have many visitors. In this case, the first symptoms can go unnoticed and it can take larger, more traumatic occurrences, such as forgetting one’s address for the Alzheimer’s disease diagnostic to be made.
Not all cases need to be transferred to an Alzheimer’s facility.
