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Information on Alzheimers disease - What is Alzheimers disease
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, being responsible for about two-thirds of the cases of dementia in patients over 60 years of age. Women are affected twice as often as men. More rarely there are familial forms of the disease that have an early onset affecting individuals in the fourth and fifth decades of life. Alzheimer's disease is insidious in onset. Early manifestations include memory loss, temporary confusion, restlessness, poor judgment, and lethargy. A failure to retain new information and a deterioration of social relationships often ensue. In some patients paranoia and delusions, which worsen during the night, are the first symptoms of the disease. Whatever the onset, the last stages are characterized by intellectual vacuity and loss of control over all body functions.
Symptoms of alzheimers disease
The brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease are characterized by the loss of neurons, which, as the disease progresses, becomes severe and leads to decreased brain size and weight. Because nerve cells synthesize the neurotransmitters necessary for interneuronal communication, it is not surprising that Alzheimer's disease is associated with diminished levels of neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, as well as modulatory neuropeptide molecules that transmit signals between nerve cells. Two other characteristic tissue lesions found in the cerebral cortex of patients with Alzheimer's disease are neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Neuritic plaques are deposits of neuron fragments surrounding a core of amyloid b-protein. Neurofibrillary tangles are twisted fibres of the protein tau found within neurons.
Causes of alzheimers disease
A variety of genetic factors have been identified in the different forms of Alzheimer's disease. The rare cases of the early familial forms of the disease are linked to three different genetic defects found on three different chromosomes—chromosomes 1, 14, and 21. Another gene on chromosome 19 is believed to play a part in the more common late-onset cases. The gene on chromosome 21 was the first to be identified. (This finding is significant because an abnormality in chromosome 21—an extra copy—is found in patients with Down syndrome, virtually all of whom develop Alzheimer's disease if they live to age 35.) The defective gene on chromosome 21 normally codes for amyloid precursor protein. A defect in this gene is thought to result in abnormal cleavage of the protein that increases the production and deposition of amyloid b-protein. This gene, however, is linked to only 2 to 3 percent of all early familial cases of the disease. The majority of patients with early-onset disease—70 to 80 percent—have the genetic mutation on chromosome 14, and another group of patients have a defective gene on chromosome 1. The gene on chromosome 19 codes for apolipoprotein E, a protein involved in cholesterol transport and metabolism. Three forms, or alleles, of the gene exist. The presence of one form—ApoE4—in an individual's genome seems to increase the deposition of amyloid b-protein in the brain and may also increase the number of neurofibrillary tangles.
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