Alzheimer's Association

What pain and agony it is to have someone who you've grown to love and adorable only forget who you are after being victim to a disease called Amnesia. Amnesia is involved with the brain's memory functions through sensory, short, and long-term memory. There are two types of Amnesia that King describes in her book (Experience Psychology Ed. 3) and those are Retrograde Amnesia and Anterograde Amnesia. Let's look at the impact that both types have on their victims. First, Retrograde…

While it is common for anyone to suffer memory loss as we age, dementia is a condition which is worse than normal memory loss and are usually symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease for older people. The primary difference between age-related memory loss and dementia is that the former isn’t disabling. The memory lapses does not affect us greatly on our daily routine, the effect is so minimal that it does cause for…

Richard McKearney Ms. De Luca-Hawk/Ms. Aubee Literature/Period A Robin Williams, Lewy Body Dementia, Depression, and Suicide On August 11, 2014, American actor and comedian, Robin Williams took his own life, he was 63 years old. Leaving the world devastated, saddened, confused and eagerly awaited the autopsy results. The question on everybody's mind was, why would this extremely gifted comedian and actor who won an oscar take his own life when he had so much to live for? In the weeks following…

nothing in it to be thankful for: An experimental Alzheimer’s drug many thought would slow the disease steady cognitive decline had failed to make a significant difference in a massive trial of people with early signs of the illness.” (Dolgin n.pag.) Unfortunately this is everyday news to people around the world and with this news comes a price (a very high one in fact) and many dangers. Consumers and patients are in danger when having alzheimer's, decrease in progression and losing money by the…

To identify if a patient is at risk of Alzheimer’s disease, doctors have devised a quick test. The 21-question test distinguishes between normal absent-mindedness and the more sinister memory lapses that may signal the early stages of dementia. The 21 questions are answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. A ‘yes’ is given a score of one or two and a ‘no’ always scored zero, giving a maximum possible score of 27. Someone who scored under five is advised that there is no cause for concern. A score…

APOE-e4 from one parent have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s. Those who inherit APOE-e4 from both parents have an even higher risk, but it’s not a certainty that they will develop the disease. It is important to point out that’s the reason why APOE- 4 is considered a genetic risk-factor. APOE-4 is a genetic risk factor so it increases a person's risk of developing the disease but it does not mean that a person will definitely develop Alzheimer's. It is estimated that APOE-4…

Language is what allows us to interact and communicate with others and comprehend what they are saying instead of just sitting there with blank stares. So what happens when there is disconnect between our brains and our ability to communicate? Neurologists have termed the word aphasia which refers to “the collective deficits in language comprehension and production that accompany neurological damage” (Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind, pg. 472). Aphasia is typically associated…

People who have Usher Syndrome are just ordinary people like us. The only difference is they can get medical tools if the usher syndrome is bad. There are some interesting facts about Usher Syndrome that could blow your mind. When you have usher syndrome you will lose your hearing and eyesight. You will usually get symptoms when you are around five. When you get usher syndrome it is not something that you have done, usher syndrome is usually inherited by your parents. If your parents don’t have…

General Description Huntington's disease is a disease that causes the progressive breakdown in the brain. Huntington's disease can have a major impact on a person's functional abilities and usually results in movement, and thinking and disorders. Every one out of 10,000 people have Huntington’s disease in the world but in the United States, almost 30,000 people have Huntington’s disease. People with Huntington's disease usually develop signs and symptoms in their 30s or 40s, but the major parts…

`It's important to understand the complexity of the human brain. The human brain weighs only three pounds but is estimated to have about 100 billion cells. It is hard to get a handle on a number that large (or connections that small). Let's try to get an understanding of this complexity by comparing it with something humans have created--the entire phone system for the planet. If we took all the phones in the world and all the wires (there are over four billion people on the planet), the number…