The Three Stages of Alzheimers Essay -- Alzheimers Disease Essays

Alzheimer’s is most likely formed by other symptoms called dementia. Dementia is not an actual disease, but has a vast range of symptoms which are precursors to many types of diseases. When dementia is detected in an individual their memory tends to decline and it becomes a hassle to complete everyday duties. When diagnosing individuals there are a series of steps taken in order to see if the individual progressed to dementia and also which disease caused those symptoms to take effect. These stages are preclinical, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Within the preclinical stage there are three sub-stages that deal with protein, plaque buildup in the brain called beta-amyloid. The symptoms for this stage are undetectable. Stage two is the MCI stage, which contain more visible symptoms such as deterioration of thinking abilities. Stage three is dementia. The symptoms for this stage are more severe and researchers use biomarkers (biochemical trackers) to detect the dis ease. There have been questions on whether individuals diagnosed with MCI are more likely to stop at dementia or progress towards Alzheimer’s disease. There have been a couple of experiments pertaining to this question, however people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) tend to pass the third stage, which is dementia and progress towards Alzheimer’s. When a person is diagnosed with a certain health problem, it doesn’t come within a matter of seconds, it happens within a steady process. First there are symptoms which most people ignore until diagnosis, then after a couple of years of ignoring the symptoms that person is diagnosed. Minor symptoms could start with slight memory loss that could result in, for example, misplacing car keys and forgett... ...the individuals mental abilities start to slow down. Lastly, stage three dealt with dementia. Within this stage the cognitive functions start shutting down. Researchers diagnose individuals with this stage and test whether they have progressed into Alzheimer’s disease. The detection of Alzheimer’s disease is easier for the researchers to detect because the symptoms are noticeable and their cognitive and behavior changes for the worst. These individuals start having mood swings and obsessive compulsion disorder and unacceptable social behavior. Referring back to the BMC Neurology research experiment, it showed that 54 individuals were diagnosed with Dementia and 50 individuals progressed to Alzheimer’s disease. This concludes that people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) tend to pass the third stage, which is dementia and progress towards Alzheimer’s.