Alzheimers

Kirsten Andersen
November 7, 2014

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Alzheimers Disease
Alzheimers is a disease that attacks the brain and long term, and short-term
memory. Alzheimers causes dementia, and severe enough loss of brain function to
interfere with daily life. German Physician Alois first described the disease in 1907, and
he thought the disease to be very rare. Today, we know that Alzheimers is the most
prevalent cause of dementia affecting more than 10% of people 65 years old, and just
under 50% of people who are 85 years and older. (Psychology and Aging). Some think
that Alzheimers is a sort-of natural aging process, and that most people are bound to get
the disease. This is not the case, in old age people usually start to notice that their thought
process is slowing, and they have difficulty remembering, but that is nothing compared to
the detrimental loss of brain function that Alzheimers disease causes. There is also a rare
form of the disease that attacks at a young 30 to 40 year old patient. This is called early
onset. (Alzheimers and Dementia). Four million Americans are estimated to have this
debilitating disease. Alzheimers disease usually starts out slowly, causing the ill to forget
recent events and they also have difficulty performing the most simple of tasks. The
disease advances quickly, it does differ from person to person, but commonly it is a fast
moving disease. Patients become confused, their personalities and behaviors are unusual,
and their judgment is impaired. Communication sometimes turns out to be difficult for
Alzheimer's patients because they often forget common words, cant finish their thoughts,
or follow direction. They struggle to find words, finish thoughts, or follow directions.
Ultimately, Alzheimers patients are unable to take care of themselves, and require
constant care and attention. (Science News).
Science and the study of Alzheimers still havent come up with a solid cause for
this horrifying disease. Hypotheses suggest that age and historical disease in the family
are possible risk factors for the disease. Recently science has been exploring the
responsibility of genetics for a possible cause of Alzheimers. Although there is no know
cause scientists, and researchers believe that Alzheimers is a complex disease, that is
caused by a plethora of different influences. Alzheimers not only affects the mental
health of the patient, but also the social health. The obvious reasons it affects the mental
health are Alzheimers patients cannot think clearly, they can not reason or remember. It
is extremely difficult for people with Alzheimers to deal with stress. The social health is
a little more difficult to see, but it is there. Victims of the disease cannot interact well
with others; they can not build new relationships, or build onto previous relationships.
They are unable to interact with family and friends, and they often forget who important
people (in their lives) are.

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For reasons science can not explain, Alzheimers disease is thought to be growing.
It is estimated that by the year 2030, the rate of Alzheimers victims will be 7.7 million,
with an anticipated 13.2 million by year 2050.The disease appears to double for every 5year age group over 65. Early stage Alzheimers disease patterns are still unclear.
The brain is an unclear web of around 100 billion neurons, which individually
communicate with others through there thousands of connections. The idea of
manipulating such a complex system to figure out how it works seems highly unlikely.
Yet, a few bold scientists have raised the bar, or as I like to say set a new standard. They
have set their sights on the inner workings of this cellular maze. Physicians, and
professionals have come up with very lucrative technology that looks at the inner
workings of the neurons in the brain. There are electrical/molecular methods of listening
in on and tweaking neurons just so they can decipher how the complex mind works and
operates. In the article the Future You by the Scientific American Mind, describes the
new technology designed to reveal the brains secrets from inside. Another article titled
Streams Of Conciseness by the Scientific American tells a story about a young women
in Pittsburg who is mostly paralyzed and carries two tiny grids of electrodes in her motor
cortex, a brain center that helps orchestrate movement. When she plugs her implant into a
computer, these electrodes relay information from her neurons to a robot, enabling her to
control a mechanical arm and hand. This woman suffers from a neurodegenerative
disorder that has left her unable to control her muscles and she seems to enjoy learning to
maneuver a robot with her thoughts. This kind of productive, new-age technology is the
kind that helps scientists to understand the inner most workings of the brain. (Scientific
America) There are still bounds of work to go still, this because it is hard for scientists to
have the necessary real life subjects they need to test and stimulate the brains neurons
in the certain ways in order to learn from them.
An obvious use for the brain-computer interface would be to give paralyzed
people more control over the environment with use of prosthetics (as mentioned in the
article) I would like to think that with such extravagant technology we would be able to
look into other parts of the brain and diseases associated with loss of brain function, and
dementia especially in Alzheimers because it is such a debilitating and fast growing
disease. There are tons of neuron researchers out there; some researchers are outfitting
the brains of animals with tiny solar cells, using light to switch specific networks on or
off to figure out what they do. This technology is called optogenetics, which involves
endowing neurons with molecules that convert light into electric signals, which is what
neurons use to communicate. The molecules are light-driven pumps or channels taken
from algae or bacteria that transport positive or negative ions into or out of cells, and
thereby either rev up or silence neuronal signaling. Researchers have used such inserted
channels to pinpoint an aggression circuit in the brain: shining light on a certain cells
endowed with these foreign molecules, thereby activating them, made mice suddenly
start attacking other mice. Others have used the technique to pinpoint the neural basis of
memory recall. Which could be extremely helpful in the study of Alzheimers and the
reasons why their memories fade and disappear. With this kind of technology there is
hope for the future of the estimated tens of millions of future Alzheimers patients. There
are a few setbacks of this experimental study, if a doctor were to put a light-sensitive
protein to a specific set of neurons in a person, well- they couldnt. They could not do
that with any reliability. The main promise of optogenetics (right now) is the ability to

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help scientists decipher the aberrations in the neural code that underlie Alzheimers and
other mental illnesss.
Although there is no clear way to cure Alzheimers at this time, scientists are
discovering masses each day and I have no doubt there will be great progress over a
considerable period of time. There is however, a way that scientists have been using to
help people with certain brain disease without using pill medications. As said in Alive
Inside, and article written in Science News Some of the most potent medicine doesnt
come in a paper cup or a little pill. Instead, it pours from a cheap set of headphones.
(Science News). Certain scientists have found that music has the power to awaken longdormant memories and emotions in people suffering from certain debilitating diseases
including Alzheimers.
Alzheimers is an unbearable and devastating disease for anyone who is
diagnosed with it. Not only for the patient, but also for his/her family. Alzheimers
affects short and long term memory and becomes so ruthless it doesnt allow for a patient
to be independent. With new age technology and research patients and their families have
something to look forward to in the future. With the continued study of Alzheimers
disease, Im sure we can figure out the inner workings of the brain. With little fixes, such
as music to help jog a long-lost memory the Alzheimers world is looking up.

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Literature Cited

Buberstein,PaulandJohnChapman.PsychologyandAging.2011.American
PsychologicalAssociation.Vol26Issue2pages351362
Sanders,Laura."MusicSoothestheAgingBraininFilm'AliveInside'"2014.Science
News.Vol184Issue4pg.1
Thies,William,PH.D,andLauraBleiler."AlzheimersandDimentia."2011.
AlzheimersAssociation.Vol7Issue2p.208244
Wicklegren,Ingred."StreamsofConsciousness,ScientificAmerican."2014.Scientific
AmericanGlobal.ScientificAmerican.Vol.311Issue4pg.12