Alzheimer's disease, its causes and symptoms

Alzheimer's disease, its causes and symptoms

Alzheimer's disease

 Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, which leads to memory loss and deterioration of the patient's cognitive abilities, due to the death of brain cells, and in fact the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are initially mild, but they develop to become more severe over time, and it should be noted that the progression of the disease can be divided Alzheimer's has three main stages, namely; The preclinical stage in which the patient has no clear symptoms, the stage of mild cognitive impairment in which the patient has mild and minor symptoms, and the stage of dementia

The causes of Alzheimer's disease

 Possible causes Despite the progress that has been made in identifying how Alzheimer's disease occurs, the exact reason behind its occurrence is still unknown to scientists until now, but many scientists believe that the accumulation of some abnormal compounds in the brain, especially plaques Amyloid and neurofibrillary fibers may play an important role in disease development and infection, and the details of that follow:

 Amyloid plaques:

 They are dense, insoluble protein clusters that cause damage to nerve cells in the brain. It is noted that these proteins accumulate in a part of the brain known as the hippocampus, which is the part responsible for storing short-term memories and converting them into long-term memory, as well as the part responsible for Memory acquisition, storage, and retrieval, in addition to its role in drawing spatial memory features, and this explains the possibility of people with Alzheimer's disease being lost because they do not distinguish familiar places.

Fibrous nerve fibers: They are twisted insoluble fibers that block the brain from the inside to the outside, which affects the communication between neurons. Railroads, known as microtubules, and the stability of these microtubules is maintained through a special fiber-like protein, known as the tau protein. The entire nervous transport system.

Factors that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease

 There are many factors that can increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, and among these factors are the following: Old age: This disease mainly affects people over the age of 65 years, as the risk of developing the disease doubles after this age by five Years, the chance of developing Alzheimer's reaches one in six people over the age of 80 years, and in fact, aging is one of the most important risk factors for developing Alzheimer's. Gender: Women are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than men, and the exact reason behind this is not known, but the possible explanations for this phenomenon are that the average age of women is greater than the average age of men, and the lack of estrogen hormone after menopause may be associated with the disease. Alzheimer's. Genetic factors: It should be said that Alzheimer's disease most of the time is not hereditary, but some cases in which Alzheimer's disease may be transmitted from generation to generation through genes inherited in the same family, which is rare, but it may cause the development of Alzheimer's disease before the age of 65 Age in some families, and in fact there are many genes, which reach more than 20 genes that can increase or decrease the chance of developing Alzheimer's disease, and a person is more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease if one of his parents or siblings suffers from Alzheimer's disease after the age of 65 years. . Down syndrome: People with Down syndrome are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease because of a difference in their genetic makeup. Lifestyle: People who follow a healthy lifestyle, which includes regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding smoking, eating healthy balanced meals, and avoiding alcohol, especially in middle age, are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. Infection with some diseases: Having some diseases increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, and examples of these diseases are: diabetes, stroke, heart problems, high blood pressure, suffering from high cholesterol and obesity in middle age, in addition to depression, despite the evidence that Depression increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is not strong.

Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease

 Alzheimer's disease causes many symptoms, such as: reduced ability to absorb and remember new information, which leads the patient to ask questions or hold repeated conversations, forget events or appointments, and get lost in places familiar to him, and the patient suffers from a weak ability to judge The things; The patient may not be able to assess the risks surrounding him, manage financial affairs, or make complex and sequential decisions. It should be noted that Alzheimer's disease causes poor visual spatial abilities that are not caused by vision problems, and therefore the patient may not be able to recognize faces or things, or Using simple tools, in addition to impaired ability to speak, read, and write, the patient may find it difficult to think in common words while speaking, hesitate while speaking, and make mistakes during speech and writing, and finally, Alzheimer's disease may cause many problems at the personal level. Behavior, such as mood swings. Such as confusion, apathy, social withdrawal, lack of interest or initiative, and the patient may lose sympathy for others, and his compulsive or unacceptable social behaviors.