Alzheimer's Disease: A Case Study

Have your ever missed placed your car keys and went crazy looking for them? This is how people with Alzheimer feel every day. Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that causes memory lost, confusion and difficulty understanding questions (Mnt, Oct). This disease has been around for more than a hundred years and received its name from Dr. Alois Alzheimer. In 1906 Dr. Alzheimer performed a cerebral autopsy on one of his patients that was experiencing memory lost and confusion prior her death. As he was doing the autopsy he noticed that her brain was abnormal. It had dense nerve cells known as senile plaques and inside those cells were twisted bands known as neurofibrillary tangles (. These plaques and tangles are now associated with the …show more content…
Most of the treatments that are used only treat symptoms such as memory lost and behavioral changes. However there has been evidence that exercising can improve memory lost and behavioral changes in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. In the case study “Exercise program for nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease” the author created an exercise program to see if it would improve Alzheimer’s patients ability to perform daily activities and decrease behavioral disturbance. This study was taken in five nursing for one year. The exercise program consisted of a one hour session twice a week. The patients completed aerobic, strength, flexibility and stability training during the sessions. The results of the case study indicated that patients that receive any form of exercise showed improvement in physical health which reduced their ch anges of harming themselves during daily activities. The patients also decreased in behavioral/emotional changes such as depression. However, there are major risks for Alzheimer’s disease patients to exercise. The patients could harm themselves on the equipment. They could lose their balance and fall off the equipment. The patient can become agitated and angry causing them to harm