Understanding Alzheimers Disease :: Alzheimers Disease Essays

Understanding Alzheimers Disease Alzheimers Disease is a progressive and permanent brain infirmitythat destroys mental and physical functioning in human beings, andinvariably leads to death. It is the fourth leading cause of adult death inthe joined States. Alzheimers creates emotional and financial catastrophefor many American families both year. Fortunately, a large amount ofprogress is being made to combat Alzheimers disease every year. To fully be able to comprehend and combat Alzheimers disease, onemust know what it does to the brain, the part of the human body it mostgreatly affects. Many Alzheimers disease sufferers had their brainsexamined. A large number of differences were present when comparing thenormal brain to the Alzheimers brain. There was a loss of nerve cells fromthe Cerebral Cortex in the Alzheimers victim. Approxiately tenner percent ofthe neurons in this region were lost. But a ten percent loss is relativelyminor, and cannot account for the severe imp airment suffered by Alzheimersvictims. Neurofibrillary Tangles are overly show in the brains of Alzheimersvictims. They are found within the cell bodies of nerve cells in thecerebral cortex, and take on the structure of a paired helix. new(prenominal)(a)diseases that have paired helixes include Parkinsons disease, DownsSyndrome, and Dementia Pugilistica. Scientists are not sure how the pairedhelixes are related in these very different diseases. Neuritic Plaques are patches of clumped material lying outside thebodies of nerve cells in the brain. They are mainly found in the cerebralcortex, but have also been seen in other areas of the brain. At the core ofeach of these plaques is a substance called amyloid, an abnormal proteinnot usually found in the brain. This amyloid core is surrounded by design offfragments of dead or dying nerve cells. The cell fragments include dyingmitochondria, presynaptic terminals, and paired helical filaments identicalto those that are neuro fibrillary tangles. Many neuropathologists thinkthat these plaques are basically clusters of degenerating nerve cells. Butthey are still not sure of how and why these fragments clustered together. Congophilic Angiopathy is the technical phone that neuropathologistshave given to an abnormality found in the walls of blood vessels in thebrains of victims of Alzheimers disease. These abnormal patches aresimilar to the neuritic plaques that develop in Alzheimers disease, inthat amyloid has been found within the blood-vessel walls wherever thepatches occur. Another name for these patches is cerebrovascular amyloid,