Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the leading causes of dementia among adults (typically) over 65 years of age. In 2006 this degenerative disease affected over 26.2 million sufferers worldwide, and that number is projected to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050 (Wikipedia.org). AD disrupts it’s victims lives biologically (physical deterioration of the brain), psychologically (severe and permanent memory loss), and socially as they becoming fully dependent on their caregivers. By understanding the stages of AD, possible causes, and prevention we can recognize the symptoms early and help those with AD live their best life.
There are 5 stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The first is preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. In this stage there are no physical or cognitive symptoms. Friends and family members of those affected notice to changes. This stage can last months, years, even decades (mayoclinic.com).

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer’s disease is the second stage.  Changes in the brain at this stage are not significant enough to affect work or social interactions. During this time those with MCI may have difficulty recalling information that was once remembered easily. This includes placement of keys, conversations, or recent appointments. They may have difficulty judging the amount of time it takes to complete a task or following the sequence of steps that were once second nature. Also, the ability to make decisions is problematic (mayoclinic.com).

The third stage of Alzheimer’s disease is mild dementia due to AD. This is the time AD is most often diagnosed when it becomes clear to friends and family members that their loved one is having difficulty with memory and thinking (mayoclinic.com). In this stage patients with AD may experience:

• Memory loss of recent events – difficulty remembering events that have happened recently asking the same question over and over

• Difficulty with problem-solving, complex tasks, and sound judgments – inability or difficulty planning family events, or balancing a check book

• Marked changes in personality – the patient becomes increasingly withdrawn, displaying uncharacteristic anger or aggression, shortened attention span, and depression

• Difficulty organizing and expressing thoughts – no longer able to articulate conversation, unable to express ideas or emotions as they could in the past

• Getting lost or misplacing belongings – decreased ability to find one’s way around, the home may become a foreign place they have never been, unable to locate items of necessity

In the fourth stage of this degenerative disease (moderate dementia due to AD) people become more and more confused with everyday life, and completing activities of daily living (ADLs). ADLs include getting dressed, bathing, eating, brushing teeth, etc. They may:

• Show increasingly poor judgment , deepening confusion – patients may lose track of the day, week or season, wandering action begins, inability to be left the their own devices

• Confuse family members with one another or strangers

• Severe memory loss -  forgetting significant lifecycle milestones like the birth of a child, or marriage, the inability to recall their phone number or address, repeating favorite stories to fill in the gaps

• Assistance with ADLs – choosing clothing, bathing, grooming, and other self-care, incontinence

• Radical personality and behavioral changes – distrust, hallucinations, frequent agitation, and un-provoked aggression including hitting, pinching, screaming, and hyper-sensitivity to light, sound and touch (mayoclinic.com).

The fifth and final stage of Alzheimer’s disease is severe dementia due to AD. It is in this stage that most patients lose the ability to communicate coherently, they require daily assistance with ADLs, and experience a severe decline in physical abilities (mayoclinic.com). “A person may become unable to walk without assistance, then unable to sit or hold up his or her head without support. Muscles may become rigid and reflexes abnormal. Eventually, a person loses the ability to swallow and to control bladder and bowel functions (mayoclinic.com).”
The progression of AD can be slow and steady (lasting up to 25 years) or acute. The typical life expectancy after diagnosis is 7 – 10 years. People with AD do not die because of the disease but because of the side-affects. If a person is no longer mobile and spends most of the day in bed, pneumonia may be the cause of death because of impaired swallowing of food or fluids, or aspiration. On the other hand, if the person with AD is still mobile and falls resulting in broken bones or development of urinary tract infections are common causes of death.

The cause and progression of Alzheimer’s disease is not well understood. Research indicates that the disease is caused by a buildup of plaques on tangles in the brain. Studies have also shown that there are several factors that may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s. Recent "studies have resulted in the discovery of an association between a decline in learning and memory, and a deficit in excitatory amino acid (EAA) neurotransmission, together with important roles for the cholinergic system in attentional processing and as a modulator of EAA neurotransmission" (jnnp.bmj.com). The herpes simplex virus type 1, and age-related myelin breakdown in the brain caused by the release of iron are possible causes as well (Wikipedia.org).

There is no cure or scientifically proven prevention for Alzheimer’s disease. Any studies of practices to prevent or delay the onset of AD have proven inconclusive. There are some studies, however, that suggest a correlation between the risk of AD and a person’s diet, cardiovascular risk (hypertension, diabetes, and smoking), pharmaceutical intervention, and the prevalence of intellectual social activities. Long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) is related with a reduced chance of developing AD. The elements of a Mediterranean diet (fruits, vegetables, wheat, olive oil, and fish) may reduce the risk of AD.

This chilling degenerative disease shows no signs of slowing down. It is one of the most feared diagnoses, next to cancer. To forget yourself, all of your life experiences, and deteriorate into infancy is the worst way to die. By understanding the stages of AD, possible causes, and prevention we can recognize the symptoms early and help those with AD live their best life.

Should You Stay Together for the Kids?

1. Explain the author’s viewpoint/main idea/purpose? 
 
In this article the author questions whether or not it is beneficial for unhappy parents to stay together for the sake of their children. Do the parents consider the child’s feelings, or is it a selfish choice? More often than not it seems parents’ divorce to make themselves more comfortable. It wasn’t until the 1970s when Dr. Judith Wallerstein, PhD challenged the thought that divorce had no impact on children. “Paradise for kids from ruptured families [isn't] easily regained.”

2. Discuss the research information, examples, and key points the author presents to back-up and emphasize the main idea/purpose of the article.

The author refers to many acclaimed authors in the field, including: Stephanie Staal's The Love They Lost (written by a child of divorce), The Case for Marriage by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher (states that even troubled marriages are better than divorce for children), and Judith Wallerstein, The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce (Hyperion). The most controversial book is Wallerstein’s which argues that “harm caused by divorce is graver and longer lasting that we suspected.”

3. How does the material in the article relate and connect to the text and other materials presented this week?

After reading the article I really linked it to Erikson’s theory of Intimacy vs. Isolation. Intimacy involves the ability to form healthy emotional bonds with another person, and isolation is the opposite of this. Those who are isolated or have not grown up with a loving example of a relationship are often unable to properly form these HEALTHY relationships. When parents’ divorce children no longer have an example of a loving relationship with another person. “Indeed, its most harmful and profound effects tend to show up as the children reach maturity and struggle to form their own adult relationships. They’re gun-shy. The slightest conflict sends them running. Expecting disaster, they create disaster. ‘They look for love in strange places,’ Wallerstein says, ‘They may terrible errors of judgment in whom they choose.”
 
4. What did you learn from article?
 
From this article I learned that I’m not alone. Being a child of divorce I knew that the divorce wasn’t my fault. I actually saw it coming. But because of it I became estranged from my father. This created all sorts of chaos in my upbringing. I have looked for love in all the wrong places, and at 29 years old I feel that I’m finally ready to look in the right place! My brothers, on the other hand, have a much closer relationship with my father and they are both happily married with wonderful spouses. It is strange how different life can turn out for kids from the same family.

Killing Us Softly

Being a teenage girl is so much harder now than it used to be. Even harder than it was for me.

In the YouTube video this week, Killing Us Softly, the speaker illustrated just how well sex sells and how difficult it is to be an awkward teenager in 2013. The pressures on young girls to be thin, but volouptious and sexy yet virginal really struck a chord with me.

I have been overweight my whole life. When I was a kid there was nothing I wouldn't trade to be thin and pretty and popular with boys. I spent my teenage years at home comforted by reruns of Friends and The Simpsons while I worked my way through a bag of Doritos. The constant teasing from my classmates made me withdraw into myself. It made me want to die. Other students weren't the only ones telling me that because of my weight I didn't belong. I was telling myself the same thing.

The media plays a huge role in how young girls see themselves. If you aren't stick-thin like Jennifer Aniston or Courtney Cox you would never have a relationship, or have fun or have friends. There is no way you can possibly thrive in this culture without some sort of degredation of self because of media sexiness.

I would love to spend my time and money helping girls like I was. I want them to know that high school, middle school, elementary school, is really the worst of it. I want these young women to know their self worth and not base it on media's photoshopped version of perfection. No one is perfect. That is something that we all have in common. We are just HUMANS trying to get through life. It doesn't have to be so damned hard.

Nature Deficit Disorder.

Media saturation has caused nationwide fear for the outside world. Many believe that if you go outside there is rape, crime, and other violence that will surely happen to you because of the prevelance on TV. However, it is my opinion that there is no more violence now than there was 50 years ago. We are just bombarded with violent stories through news stories on TV, radio, in newspapers. It is because of this media oversaturation most americans live in fear of the great out doors.

As a child I loved playing in the field across the street from our house. My play cousins and I would build forts in the tall grass and solve imaginary crimes. My mother would send us out at 9am and tells to come back for lunch and then dinner. We didn't have cell phones. We didn't have GPS, or tablets to occupy our time. My favorite memories of childhood were those spent outside.

 I remember turning over rocks and finding different bugs, and poking at them. Now, I shudder at the mere thought of a potato bug crossing my path. What happened? What happened in the 20+ years since that taught me to dispise those dirty little buggers?

To think that children living in New York, NY or Chicago, IL have no idea how to camp, or even pitch a tent for that matter, simply astounds me.

The following commerical from Volkswagen drives me crazy because that father should know how to throw a ball correctly:




 Now I understand that this may be more about the father's ability to throw a ball "correctly", and not that he was unable to play outside. But I still find it disturbing. Maybe its just me.

Theres a whole world out there! Go get your share!!

Medicating Young Minds

One of the featured articles this week was "Medicating Young Minds" from TIME. The article discusses the effects of brain-altering medications on children and adolescents.  While the medications provide the desired results, are they worth it? The article also argues that insurance companies are more willing to compensate for a prescription, than psychological help. Which I completely agree with.

In my opinion, the counseling and retraining of the brain is far more beneficial than any medication. That being said, I take medication to control my anxiety and depression. I personally have a hard time paying for therapy sessions that would benefit me. Why would someone pay money just to talk to another person? For words? You can talk to your friends, family, even strangers in line at the grocery store. Humans don't talk TO each other any more. We talk (or type) at each other.

Something I have done is completely made myself transparent to others while at school. I spent so much of my childhood hiding everything about me that I didn't want to have to start school again with those old anxieties. What a fabulous time to reinvent yourself! I have exchanged therapy with a clinician for opening up to friends, family, and former strangers. Talking about feelings and emotions rather than holding them in is better than any therapy I've ever had.

Reactive Attachment Disorder

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) is an uncommon, serious condition where an infant is unable to form a healthy bond with their caregiver due to abuse, or neglect. This condition develops because the infant's basic needs are not being met hurting the ability to be able to form relationships with others in the future.

My father suffers from RAD. He was the 7th, and youngest, child born to a physically abusive father and a mother with severe postpartum depression. Through infancy he laid in a play pen for hours watching his rambunctious siblings tear through the house seemingly unaware of his existence. My father was the scapegoat for all that was wrong in the house as a child and his drunken father would beat him mercilessly for it.

He met my mom some time later, and when she found out she was pregnant with me they got married because "it was the right thing to do." My father has always been distant. Awkward. Anti-social. Aloof. Self-absorbed. He knew how to be a boy, but never a man. Never a father to me. In his defense, however, he had no idea what a "good" father looked like or acted. He just knew that by not physically and emotionally abusing my brothers' and me he was a better father than his own. And for that I am grateful.

With unlimited funds I would love to work with children suffering from RAD. Help them understand that not everyone is evil or depressed and broken. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and people out there who want to love you. It would heal my soul to help children like my father. To be an advocate for someone with such a small voice.

Sense of Self

I love the article this week entitled Sense of Self. The author, Thomas Hayden, tries to answer whether it is our genes, our parents, the environment, or all three that determine human behavior. It is in fact all three forces that shape us. He wrote about breeding monkeys for a shyness trait and that those monkeys who were cared for by "normal" mothers had a much harder time coping than those that had been raised by a extra nurturing mother. The extra nurturing the second group of monkeys received increased their ability to deal with stressful situations and attain higher positions on the social ladder. Applying this information to my own life helps me understand my propensity for shyness. 

I see a lot of myself in those shy monkeys. I could have used some uber-nurturing while I was growing up, but life just isn't that fair. Like monkeys with alcohol, I used food to cope with stress and my emotions. I was impulsive to the point that I wouldn't notice that I had finished an entire bag of chips in one sitting. I just knew that I had to dull the pain I was feeling, and I thought food could do it. It wasn't until recently that I realized there is a better way to live. That if you just have some patience and persistence you CAN be happy. 

I would love to learn more about the study that Jerome Kagan did as he followed 500 individuals over 20+ years. What other influences did he find that paved their life journeys? Did the children who thrashed around when presented with new stimuli ever get over their anxieties as adults? What were their teenage years like?