Alzheimer's

In the middle of the Middle-East peace talks at Camp David, President Clinton stopped to make an announcement that had nothing to do with the Middle-East or peace talks. Instead, the President announced that over the next five years, the National Institute of Health will earmark $50 million towards research designed to help prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease (President 1). The monies are primarily directed at developing a vaccine for this pervasive disease which affects millions of Americans, particularly older Americans, and promises to rapidly affect more as more numbers of people age and live longer lives "The number of Americans Alzheimer's disease is expected to more than triple by the year 2050. Currently, one in 10 people over the age of 65 and as many as 50 percent of those over the age of 85 have Alzheimer's disease" (President 1). This analysis will shed light on this disease that is commonly associated with human growth and the aging process. A conclusion will address some promising new research that may contribute to one day finding a vaccine and even a cure for this debilitating disease that most commonly affects the elderly.

Alzheimer's disease is an insidious and pervasive neurological disorder. The onset of Alzheimer's is typically in advanced age, when a dire series of neurological events steals memory and judgment from the mind eventually robbing the individual of the self (personality).

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cell damage occurs from just neurofibrillary tangles alone (the lesions of Alzheimer's), which means that some people's brain cells may degenerate differently from those who have lesions as well as beta amyloid plaque buildup. The problem with finding a way to prevent or cure Alzheimer's is the confusion among scientists about the nature of the disease. Biochemistry discoveries have greatly increased scientists' understanding of the disease, but there is still contradiction over the exact nature of the illness. While some researchers believe their studies show that neurofibrillary tangles alone can cause degenerative neurological disease, others argue that the beta amyloid plaque so associated with Alzheimer's patients is necessary for a diagnosis of Alzheimer's "Brain regions of those suffering from dementia�even those in the mildest stages of Alzheimer's�were full of plaques. Probably the best correlate of whether somebody has Alzheimer's dementia or not is the presence of lots of amyloid plaques in a brain area called the neocortex" (Alzheimer's 2). Other scientists argue that the plaque and tangles are not the cause of Alzheimer's, they are merely the markers of death for brain cells that have already died of the disease.

Category: Psychology - A