If I were to ask you what you ate
this morning for breakfast, or even what you ate last night or the morning
before; you’d more than likely be able to tell me with no problem at all. Your
recollection of facts of the past is at its peak at your young age. Now, if I
were to ask someone from the ages of 65-80, his or her ability to provide me
with that information would not be as strong as yours. This upward trend
follows further into the lifespan of an individual. However, it’s totally
different story when you can’t remember the girl’s name from biology that you
met last month; then when you can’t remember the name of your first born
daughter or who she is for that matter. People who experience the latter
scenario are typically suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most
common form of dementia and is characterized by extensive memory loss, problems
in thinking, and a deviation from typical behavior.
Sitting in church one day in one of
the chairs lined up against the back wall, I noticed the Castro (fake name-true
story) family walk in through the back.
They came in with their 87 year old grandmother and right before they
proceeded to go up the stairs to the balcony; the grandmother began to crouch
down against a wall that had no chairs against it, as if an actual chair was
there. When I asked my parents what was going on they told me about her
Alzheimer’s. When I saw her crouch, I immediately thought of a concept I
learned in my developmental psych class about how a young child has difficulty
understanding object permanence and other aspects in that stage. This shows how
when someone gets older, and unfortunately their brain starts to not be as
sharp as it used to be, they sort of revert back to their childish ways.
In a late case of Alzheimer’s, the
affected will become highly disoriented and have trouble focusing on being in
the “now”. Alzheimer’s gets worse over
time and has no cure.
Having to watch a loved one go through this disease and its
symptoms/ side effects can sometimes be harder than having the disease itself.
You all have seen the Notebook right?
This video is an inside look at experiencing life with
Alzheimer’s, please have your tissues nearby. This isn’t easy to see.
Alzheimer’s disease is a very complicated disease anyone can have. Not only does it affect the person themselves, it affects their surroundings. It must be hard for individuals to experience this type of disease. I know it must also be sad seeing a loved one slipping away from what they did or who they know throughout their lifetime. Currently, my grandpa is in the first stage of Alzheimer’s and I know it’s a matter of time when he reaches the final stage of this disease.
ReplyDeleteAlzheimer's Disease is a genetic degenerative disease that still has no known cure. Harvard scientists may have an answer. Dr. Bruce Yankner, the lead investigator of this break-through study, suspects that the same protein found in fetuses called REST, can potentially reduce the occurrence of AD in elderly people. Now you might be curious why? Well it turns out that these two very different age groups possess high amounts of the REST protein. Dr. Yankner hypothesized that it is because in aging as in birth, brains encounter great stress. REST levels dropped as symptoms of AD worsened, indicating that, REST is sufficient for normal cognitive processes in adults. Now this study can potentially be ground-breaking because it has never been done before. And certainly succeeding studies will soon replicate Dr. Yankner's study. (Source: New York Times)
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