What did you learn about Alzheimer's disease with Aging with Grace
Practice essay on Aging with Grace
In 1901, Dr. Alois Alzheimer began observing a patient named Auguste D. Auguste began behaving more and more bizarrely after developing an intense suspicion about her husband. She would hide objects, become lost in her own home, start screaming loud insisting that people were out to murder her. Dr. Alzheimer found Auguste confused lines when she read, repeated single style labels many times when she wrote and used odd phrases when she spoke. When Auguste died in 1906, Dr. Alzheimer performed an autopsy on her brain. The autopsy revealed damage and cell death had shrunk the tissue. The nerve cells contained a “tangled bundle of fibrils”. From this observation Dr. Alois termed the disease after himself calling it Alzheimer’s disease. Tangles and plaques are the 2 most important pathological features of Alzheimer’s disease.
About 45% of Americans who are 85 years or older suffer Alzheimer’s disease. Why were nuns used in this study? Members have similar lifestyles which enables researchers to make powerful comparisons of factors connected to illness or health. Nuns do not smoke, are celibate, have similar jobs and income, and receive similar healthcare. These factors reduce confounding variables – poverty and lack of healthcare – that can cloud the meaning of data. Outside a laboratory, it would be hard to find as pure an environment for research.
Alzheimer’s disease is linked between a sister’s level of organization and her mental and physical abilities later in life. In order to actually observe the difference made due to education, Dr. Snowdon and his team performed tests to estimate the elderly’s physical and mental ability. Better educated people lived longer, partly because they had a lower risk of disease. Sisters with a college degree had a much better chance of surviving to old age and maintain their independence. In contrast, less educated sisters have limited mental and physical abilities. The reason why sisters who have
In 1901, Dr. Alois Alzheimer began observing a patient named Auguste D. Auguste began behaving more and more bizarrely after developing an intense suspicion about her husband. She would hide objects, become lost in her own home, start screaming loud insisting that people were out to murder her. Dr. Alzheimer found Auguste confused lines when she read, repeated single style labels many times when she wrote and used odd phrases when she spoke. When Auguste died in 1906, Dr. Alzheimer performed an autopsy on her brain. The autopsy revealed damage and cell death had shrunk the tissue. The nerve cells contained a “tangled bundle of fibrils”. From this observation Dr. Alois termed the disease after himself calling it Alzheimer’s disease. Tangles and plaques are the 2 most important pathological features of Alzheimer’s disease.
About 45% of Americans who are 85 years or older suffer Alzheimer’s disease. Why were nuns used in this study? Members have similar lifestyles which enables researchers to make powerful comparisons of factors connected to illness or health. Nuns do not smoke, are celibate, have similar jobs and income, and receive similar healthcare. These factors reduce confounding variables – poverty and lack of healthcare – that can cloud the meaning of data. Outside a laboratory, it would be hard to find as pure an environment for research.
Alzheimer’s disease is linked between a sister’s level of organization and her mental and physical abilities later in life. In order to actually observe the difference made due to education, Dr. Snowdon and his team performed tests to estimate the elderly’s physical and mental ability. Better educated people lived longer, partly because they had a lower risk of disease. Sisters with a college degree had a much better chance of surviving to old age and maintain their independence. In contrast, less educated sisters have limited mental and physical abilities. The reason why sisters who have