Assignment Disease Process: Alzheimer’s Disease

Assignment Disease Process: Alzheimer’s Disease

Assignment Disease Process Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) refers to a an irremediable, degenerative, and progressive disorder that affects the nerve cells and neurons of the brain leading to gradual destruction of memory, behaviors, thinking skills, language skills, and ultimately, the ability to perform simple tasks. According to the National Institute on Aging (2020), AD mostly affects the elderly and the first symptoms often appear in the ages of mid 60s. Presently, AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the US; however, some reports indicate that the disease may rank third among the elderly. Regarding the prevalence, it is estimated that over 5.5 million Americans aged 65 years and above suffer from the disease (National Institute on Aging, 2020). AD is characterized by loss of cognitive functioning, behavioral disturbances, psychiatric symptoms, and challenges in performing routine activities. Although AD has no cure, the management of the condition is costing over $100 billion annually. AD is the major contributor of dementia among the elderly. The causes of dementia differ based on the type of brain damage that occurs. The severity of dementia ranges from the mildest stage when it begins to cause effects to the functioning of a victim to the severest stage when the victim must entirely rely on others for daily activities of living.

Causes and Symptoms of AD

The exact cause of AD is yet to be established. However, for those with early-onset AD, the cause may be attributed to genetic mutation. On the other side, the late-onset AD may emanate from an intricate set of changes in the brain that gradually occur. Overall, the causes of AD may encompass a combination of environmental, genetic, and lifestyle factors (Jack Jr. et al., 2018). However, the contribution of each of these factors in enhancing or lowering the risk of developing AD tends to be distinct for every person.

On the other hand, the symptoms of AD also vary in every person. In most cases, the general symptom of AD is memory loss. Since AD occurs gradually, the initial symptoms are characterized by loss of small amount of memory and forgetfulness, which progressively advance to severe dementia characterized by complete memory loss. However, the memory loss can sometimes be as a result of normal ageing. Other symptoms include cognitive dysfunctions such as loss of language skills, thinking skills, and executive dysfunctions including inability to conduct planning and coordination (National Institute on Aging, 2020). Likewise, the behavioral and psychiatric symptoms may include hallucinations, depression, and agitation.

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AD causes the death of the nerve cells and loss of tissue in the whole brain. In turn, the brain begins to shrink gradually and dramatically. In the process, virtually all the functions of the brain are affected. However, the effect is often dire in the memory. The

brain’s cortex withers and causes dire destruction to the parts of the brain that are used for thinking, memory, and planning. The withering is mostly dangerous for the hippocampus, which is a crucial area that generates new memories (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). Owing to this shrinkage, the ventricles, which connotes the part of brain filled with fluids, elongates to cover the spaces left after shrinkage. Eventually, the brain is left with reduced nerve cells and synapses. Essentially, the nerve cells and synapses are vital in the normal functioning of the brain because they help in conveying the messages in the entire brain, making them important to the biological workings that create awareness and thought. Contrarily, the dead nerve cells have tangles, which comprise of other protein’s warped strands. The small amount of these tangles may block the synapse and trigger the immune system to cause inflammation.

The plagues and tangles broaden in the entire cortex as AD advances. Essentially, the plagues are characterized by dense and insoluble beta-amyloid peptide and cellular materials deposit in the exterior of neurons. The degree of spread of the tangles and plagues in the brain differ significantly from patient to patient. The average life expectancy of the victims of AD is eight years; however, some people may live for 20 years (Dubois et al., 2016). In severe AD, the cortex is seriously damaged due to the dramatic withering of the brain over the massive cell death. Consequently, this stage of AD is characterized by the loss of ability to identify or remember the family or friends, inability to think, inability to communicate, lack of self-care, and inability to perform daily living activities.

Diagnosis of AD

The National Institute on Aging (2020) reports that there are multiple tools to determine the possible presence of memory challenges including possible Alzheimer’s dementia or probable Alzheimer’s dementia. The diagnosis may include the following:

• Inquire from the patient or his or her family members or friends about the general health, diet, behavioral and personality changes, utilization of prescription or over-the-counter drugs, previous medical issues, and the ability to perform conduct routine activities.
• Carrying out tests in areas such as problem solving, memory, language, counting, and attention.
• Performing standard medical tests such as urine tests and blood tests to determine other possible attributes of the problem.
• Performing various brain scans such as positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to dismiss other possible causes.

It is advisable to repeat these tests to give the physicians clear information regarding the manner in which the person’s memory and other cognitive functions evolve over time. However, the definite diagnosis of AD can only occur after the death of a victim by connecting the clinical assessments with examination of brain tissues during an autopsy.

Implication of AD and Gender Factor

It is common for victims of AD to exhibit personal and emotional changes, with anxiety and major depressive disorder being the most common outcomes of the condition. Approximately, after every one hour, someone in America develop the AD (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). Relating to gender, women seem to be the most affected by this disease. Reportedly, two thirds of victims of AD in the United States are women. Besides, the approximated risk for developing AD in women in their 60s is one in six (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). Worse yet, women are not only on higher risk of developing AD, they are also more likely to be burdened with caring for the victims of AD.

Treatment and Management of AD

There is no definite cure for AD. However, there are therapeutic treatments for some dementia and other associated symptoms. For management, it is recommended to use non-medication interventions during the initial stages of AD, particularly when the symptoms are not a threat to the patients or people around the patient (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). However, when non-medication interventions fail, medications such as cholinesterase inhibitors can be used to treat AD. This medication has been shown to improve certain symptoms in some victims of AD. However, the severe cases of AD can be managed by memantine. However, this glutamatergic antagonist drug is limited to only those in clinical trials. Both the memantine and cholinesterase inhibitors often tend to generate insignificant enhancement in the routine activities of living.

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource