Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease is a Multifactorial inheritance gene, meaning that it was caused by a variety of factors including environmental and genetic ones. It is the number one cause of dementia in the United States and other places in the world, meaning memory loss is to be expected when developing Alzheimer’s. Although Alzheimer’s is chronic, and can be lifelong. Let’s get into the causes of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Causes
The main and only known cause for Alzheimer’s Disease is old age. Old age can lead to the overproduction and accumulation of different proteins in the brain, which can lead to nerve damage or death. Now, you can’t really avoid old age, so it is really up to chance and genetics as to whether or not you get Alzheimer’s. 38% of people over the age of 85 are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, so it’s not really that uncommon.
What gene causes Alzheimer’s?
The gene with the highest risk of causing Alzheimer’s is the APOE-e4 gene as up to 65% of the people diagnosed with the disease have this gene. As www.alz.org says, “APOE-e4 is one of three common forms of the APOE gene; the others are APOE-e2 and APOE-e3.” The gene APOE-e4 can be passed down by both parents, and if you get one gene with it, you have an increased likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s, and if you by chance inherit APOE-e4 from both parents, the odds of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s during your later years goes up exponentially, along with even causing it to surface sooner.
Is there any cure?
Because Alzheimer’s disease is a genetic disease, there is no cure as of yet (although some types of genetic diseases can be somewhat treated using gene therapy). Cognition-enhancing medication has been shown to help patients, but until someone solves the mystery of gene editing, I doubt Alzheimer’s will have a definite cure.
Dementia
Let’s start with defining dementia – according to www.mayoclinic.org, “Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurologic disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die.” This is the main cause of dementia, which is a loss of memory and cognitive skills in the brain. Dementia can’t be treated, and has seven main phases –
Stage one – No cognitive decline
It’s almost impossible to diagnose dementia at this stage, because there is no cause for concern, and it is only noticeable through an MRI. There are no major behavioral changes.
Stage two – Very mild cognitive decline
The patient may start forgetting or misplacing things, but it may still go unnoticed by people close to them.
Stage three – Mild cognitive decline
May start to suffer from short term memory loss (think dory), and these changes become noticeable in a hurry to friends and family. The patient starts to have difficulty doing everyday tasks.
Stage four – Moderate cognitive decline
This is the stage where concern starts to grow within the patient and their family. Stage four is also where most cases of Alzheimer’ are diagnosed.
Stage five – Moderately severe cognitive decline
Patients have major/noticeable disturbances, such as forgetting their own address.
Stage six – Severe Cognitive design
Begin to forget names and faces of close family members.
Stage seven – Very severe cognitive decline
The last stage of dementia – patients become dependent on others for everything from going to the bathroom to drinking water.
Dementia is a very serious genetic disease, and more than 350,000 cases of dementia are diagnosed each year.
Conclusion
Alzheimer’s is a genetic disease, in which the leading cause is old age. Specific genes can cause Alzheimer’s, such as APOE-e4, and there are currently no cures. Alzheimer’s is also the leading cause of dementia, in which there are seven stages (No cognitive decline, Very mild cognitive decline, Mild cognitive decline, Moderate cognitive decline, Moderately severe cognitive decline, Severe cognitive decline, and Very severe cognitive decline). Overall, Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease that basically no one in this world likes, and until a cure is found, it will continue to run rampant upon our senior citizens.
Sources
Learning Medicine 