DEFINITION AND HISTORY OF ALZHEIMER

By definition,according to the Alzheimer’s association,  Alzheimer disease is a progressive brain disorder that damages and eventually destroys brain cells, leading to memory loss and changes in thinking and other brain functions, it slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks .In most people with Alzheimer’s, symptoms first appear in their mid-60s and unfortunately, there is no cure for this disease.

This disease take is name from  Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1906 who  noticed change in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness. Memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior were the symptoms of her disease. when she died, he examined her brain and found many abnormal clumps (now called amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (now called neurofibrillary, or tau, tangles).These plaques and tangles in the brain are still considered some of the main features of Alzheimer’s disease. Another symptom is the loss of connections between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain. Neurons transmit messages between different parts of the brain, and from the brain to muscles and organs in the body.

WHAT HAPPEN TO THE BRAIN IN ALZHEIMER?

Alzheimer disease disrupts critical metabolic processes that keep neurons healthy. These disruptions cause nerve cells in the brain to stop working, lose connections with other nerve cells, and finally die. The destruction and death of nerve cells causes the memory failure, personality changes, problems in carrying out daily activities, and other features of the disease.The brains of people with AD have an abundance of two abnormal       structures—amplyoid plaques (found in the spaces between the brain’s nerve cells and     consist of largely insoluble deposits of an apparently toxic protein peptide, or fragment, called beta-amyloid) and neurofibrillary tangles—that are made of misfolded proteins (see “protein misfolding” for more information). This is especially true in certain regions of the brain that are important in memory.                                                                                        The third main feature of AD is the loss of connections between cells. This leads to diminished cell function and cell death.

TREATEMENT 

As we know there is not yet  cure for this disease and new drug take long to be created . To help reseacher to be faster, they need voulunteers to the advanced of the reseach and also  the fund necesaary to to the reseach. for the time that search are in progress, they are two(2)  2 types of medications used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. They work differently and are often used together in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease. This is called combination therapy.                                                                                                                 The type of medication are:                                                                                              Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs): these are thought to work by slowing the breakdown of a chemical in the brain called acetylcholine. This chemical is involved in learning and memory.                                                                                                                    Glutamate pathway modifiers (memantine hydrochloride) :these may help regulate the abnormal activity of glutamate—another chemical in the brain that is important for learning and memory.