Alzheimer's Disease: The Forgetting

1. Why do you think Alzheimer's disease is so much more common now than it was in the past?
Countries are more developed nowadays than they were before and have a large proportion of elderly people. Some researches show that Alzheimer's is more common for people who live in urban area's.

2. How is Alzheimer's an economic issue?
The high cost of health care for the patients and their inability to care for themselves effects family members who take care of them. The costs of nursing home and health care for the patients often exceeds the resources of the individuals.

3. Explain how Alzheimer's disease was "discovered".
 it was described before, but t was not until 1906 that a German physician, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, specifically identified a collection of brain cell abnormalities as a disease. One of his patients died after years of severe memory problems, confusion and difficulty understanding questions. he later on performed an autopsy. he doctor noted dense deposits surrounding the nerve cells. 

4. Explain the concept that Alzheimer's robs you of your identity.
People start to forget where did they put things and what were they supposed to do. They have trouble with their memories, the recognition of faces. Often they don't recognize family members. One second everything is perfectly normal and the next one they act mean and violent to the persons they were talking to before. As the time goes on it becomes more severe and the change in their behaviour happens often.

5. Describe the process that Alzheimer's disease follows.
The disease is divided into 4 stages :

Pre-dementia: Can be easily mistaken for aging or stress.
Early: Vocabulary is shrinking and word fluency decreased.
Moderate: Behavioural and neuropsychiatric changes become more prevalent.
Advanced: The person is completely dependent on caregivers, loss of speech.