Alzheimer’s Disease and the Elderly

As people grow older, the resistance power of their body decreases. Nature has built human beings with a certain amount of resistance power, by birth, and as people start growing, their resistance power increases. This increase in the body’s capability to stave off sickness keeps on increasing till a certain age is reached and after that this power declines. If you have noticed carefully, young people recover far more quickly from most illness than the elderly. The reason behind this is due to their body’s enhanced resistance power.

As you grow old, your muscles capabilities decrease, the resistance power of the body goes down, permitting diseases to attack you with more vigor. Despite the resistance capabilities of the body, there are certain diseases that only attack the aged people and one of the worst such disease is Alzheimer’s disease which attacks the brain of the human being. In fact it is more of a type of brain disorder and is named after the famous German physician Alois Alzheimer who discovered and provided details of this disease in the year 1906. More than a century has passed since the discovery of Alzheimer’s disease yet scientists have not been able to find a sure shot cure for it.

During the years, physicians and scientists have discovered many things about Alzheimer’s and the most important of them is the fact that Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disease that is fatal. It might surprise readers to know that there are more than 5 million Americans who are affected with this disease called Alzheimer’s. This disease attacks the brain cells of humans and destroys them thereby causing loss of memory. Alzheimer’s disease also causes problems with the patient’s behavior and thinking in such a way that it becomes difficult for them to continue with their day to day work and so damaging their social life.

Alzheimer’s disease, which is the 6th leading cause of death in America, gets worse as time passes. This disease attacks people in various stages and they include right from the stage where there is no visible impairment in the patient, to the very severe stage which is the final stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Each one of these stages has got its own distinguishing characteristics by which it can be recognized. Patients who are diagnosed with the primary stages of Alzheimer’s disease can get cured if they exercise their memory cells, those who are suffering from the final stage are left with no cure at all.

They loose their ability to respond, their capability to speak and also their capabilities over movement control. Some patients suffering from the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease also find it tough to speak and if they utter something, it is incomprehensible and cannot be recognized. Such patients also need assistance to take their food or for going to the toilet or even passing of urine. Apart from the many problems Alzheimer’s causes is the capability of a person to even smile since their muscles and reflexes grow rigid.<-->