Understanding Alzheimers Disease :: Alzheimers Disease Essays

Understanding Alzheimers Disease Alzheimers Disease is a progressive and irreversible brain diseasethat destroys mental and physical cognitive process in gracious macrocosms, andinvariably leads to death. It is the fourth leading cause of crowing death inthe United States. Alzheimers creates emotional and financial catastrophefor numerous American families e real year. Fortunately, a coarse amount ofprogress is being made to combat Alzheimers disease every year. To fully be open 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 deviation of governing body cells fromthe Cerebral Cortex in the Alzheimers victim. Approxiately ten percent ofthe neurons in this region were lost. But a ten percent loss is relativelymino r, and cannot account for the severe impairment suffered by Alzheimersvictims. Neurofibrillary Tangles be excessively found in the brains of Alzheimersvictims. They are found within the cell bodies of punk cells in thecerebral cortex, and take on the structure of a diametrical helix. Otherdiseases that give up 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 coarse-grained, an abnormal proteinnot usually found in the brain. This amyloid core is surrounded by cast offfragments of dead or dying nerve cells. The cell fragments include dyingmitochondria, presynaptic terminals, and paired volute filaments identicalto those that are neurofibrillary tangles. Many neuropathologists thinkthat these plaques are basically clusters of degenerating nerve cells. Butthey are still not sure of how and why these fragments constellate together. Congophilic Angiopathy is the technical parent 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,