Types of dementia and common signs and symptoms Essay Example for Free

Types of dementia and common signs and symptoms Essay The term ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms which can include loss of memory, mood changes and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain conditions and diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. †¨Age is the greatest risk factor for dementia. Dementia affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six over the age of 80. However, dementia is not restricted to older people: in the UK, there are over 17,000 people under the age of 65 with dementia, although this figure is likely to be an underestimate. Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s disease affects around 496,000 people in the United Kingdom and is the most common cause of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is a physical disease which affects the brain. It was first described by a German neurologist, Alois Alzheimer. During the course of the disease, protein plaques and tangles develop in the structure of the brain, leading to the death of brain cells. People with Alzheimer’s also have a shortage of some important chemicals in their brain which are involved with the transmission of messages. †¨Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease, meaning that over time more parts of the brain are damaged. As this happens, the symptoms become more severe. †¨People in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease may experience lapses of memory and have problems finding the right words. As the disease progresses, some symptoms that a person may experience are: Confusion; frequently forgetting the names of people, places, appointments and recent events. Mood swings; feeling sad or angry, or scared and frustrated by their increasing memory loss. Withdrawal; due to either a loss of confidence or communication problems. Difficulty when carrying out everyday activities; a person with Alzheimer’s may get muddled checking their change at the shops or become unsure how to work the television remote. So far, no one single factor has been identified as a cause for Alzheimers disease. It is likely that a combination of factors including  age, genetic inheritance, environmental factors, lifestyle and overall general health, are responsible. In some people, the disease may develop silently for many years before symptoms appear. Vascular Dementia Vascular dementia is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. It is caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain. Brain cells need a good supply of blood in order to be healthy and function properly. Blood is delivered through a network of blood vessels called the vascular system. If the vascular system within the brain becomes damaged and blood cannot reach the brain cells, the cells will eventually die. This can lead to the onset of vascular dementia. †¨Factors that can increase a person’s risk of developing vascular dementia include: A medical history of stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes (particularly type II), heart problems or sleep apnoea (where breathing stops for a few seconds or minutes during sleep). A lack of physical activity, drinking more that recommended levels of alcohol, smoking, eating a fatty diet or leaving conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes untreated. A family history of stroke or cardiovascular disease. An Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani or Sri Lankan ethnic background as differences in vascular risk factors (such as heart disease) in these communities may contribute to the increased risk. An African-Caribbean ethnic background. There are different types of vascular dementia: Stroke-related dementia, sub-cortical vascular dementia and mixed dementia (vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease). The difference between these types depends on what has caused the damage in the brain and which part of the brain has been damaged.†¨Common signs and symptoms of vascular dementia may include: Problems with speed of thinking, concentration and communication. Depression and anxiety accompanying the dementia. Symptoms of a stroke, such as physical weakness or paralysis. Seizures. Periods of severe confusion. Visual mistakes and misperceptions (for example, seeing a rug as a pond). Changes in behaviour (for example, restlessness). Difficulties with walking and unsteadiness. Hallucinations and delusions. Problems with continence. Psychological symptoms such as becoming more obsessive. Dementia with Lewy Bodies Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a form of dementia which shares characteristics with both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It accounts for around 10% of all cases of dementia in older people and tends to be under-diagnosed. †¨Named after the doctor who first identified them in 1912, Lewy bodies are tiny, spherical protein deposits found in nerve cells. Their presence in the brain disrupts the brain’s normal functioning, interrupting the action of important chemical messengers. Lewy bodies are also found in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disease that affects movement. †¨Dementia with Lewy bodies is also a progressive disease, which means that over time the symptoms will become worse. DLB progresses at about the same rate as Alzheimer’s disease, typically over several years. Symptoms of DLB can include: Problems with attention and alertness, often have spatial disorientation and experience difficulty with ‘executive function’, which includes difficulty in planning ahead and co-ordination mental activities. Memory is affected, although it is typically less so than in Alzheimer’s disease. Slowness. muscle stiffness. trembling of the limbs, a tendency to shuffle when walking, loss of facial expression and changes in the strength and tone of the voice. Experience detailed and convincing visual hallucinations, often of people or animals. Find that their abilities fluctuate daily or hourly. Fall asleep very easily by day, and have restless, disturbed nights with confusion, nightmares and hallucinations. Faint, fall or have ‘funny turns’. Researchers have yet to understand fully why Lewy bodies occur in the brain and how they cause damage. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) is a rare form of dementia. Rarer forms of dementia account for around only 5% of all dementia cases in the UK. †¨CJD is caused by an infection protein in the brain called a prion. These prions accumulate at high levels in the brain and cause irreversible damage to nerve cells. There are four main types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Sporadic CJD, variant CJD, familial or inherited CJD and iatrogenic CJD. Sporadic CJD, which normally affects people over 40, is the most common form of the disease. It is estimated that the disease affects about one out of every 1 million people every year. There may be many years between a person being infected and the development of symptoms. Symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease include: Loss of intellect and memory. Change in personality. Loss of balance and co-ordination. Slurred speech. Visual problems and blindness. Abnormal jerking movements. Progressive loss of brain function and mobility. Most people with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease will die within a year of the symptoms starting, usually from infection. This is because the immobility caused by the disease can make people with the condition vulnerable to infection.

Global Warming Essay -- Environmental Global Climate Change

What happens when too much carbon dioxide gets omitted into the Earth’s atmosphere? The condition known as Global Warming occurs. Global Warming is the rising of the Earth’s surface temperature due to chemicals in the atmosphere. Global Warming has many threats on the climate and even the health of the people on this planet. Some of these threats include the altering of crop seasons and even effect the way organisms survive on the planet. The first thing I think I should discuss when talking about global warming is what causes it to occur. Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are known as greenhouse gases, all build up in the atmosphere of the earth. All these gases make it so that it becomes harder for the radiation that the sun shines into the atmosphere to escape. The heat continues to build up and this is what causes the temperatures to increase. I know this seems like the temperatures increase massively but in the last hundred years the average temperature of the Earth has gone up between 0.8 and 1.0 degrees farenheight. Also in the last fifteen years, we have had the ten warmest years in record. Global Warming also helps the Earth and it has been for many years. Without global warming, the Earth’s temperature would be a lot lower than the 60-degree average. Unfortunately due to there being many more harmful â€Å"greenhouse gases† being placed into the atmosphere, instead of the temperature staying at a constant, its rising. What are many of the dangers of the Earth’s temperature rising? First of all it cause many of the glaciers that are floating in the Arctic and Greenland to melt. This in turn causes the sea levels to rise around the world. In the last hundred years alone the seas around the planet have risen anywhere from four to ten inches. I know it does not sound like a massive change but being able to raise all the seas in the world a whole ten inches is a huge problem. Sea levels also continue to rise is because the hotter temperature cause the ocean water to expand. An example of the sea level causing problems could happen on a little Native Island in the middle of an Ocean. On these islands usually where native tribes live, if the sea level rises three fourths of a meter then half of the island will sink. This could happen in many different islands around the world and if the water keeps on rising as it ... ...ications for the rest of the world are serious. Even a partial melting of the polar ice caps will cause sea levels to rise so much as to completely wipe out most coastal cities. This includes such big cities such as San Francisco and New York. Those cities that are not totally wiped out by the water will eventually be hit with hurricanes much more severe than any other one in history. Of course, inland cities are not safe either. Rather than surging seawaters and hurricanes, they will face drought. So what can be done in order to keep from all of that from happening? We need to stop putting so much pollution in to the air. No matter what there will always be a little bit of Carbon Dioxide omitted into the atmosphere. If we could just limit all the coal and fossil fuels that we burn, there will not be so much â€Å"greenhouse gases† and it would keep all of that from happening so quickly. There have also been many attempts by the United States Presidents Administrations in order to help slow down the effect. In my lifetime I know that I won’t see anything too drastic happen due to global warming, but there is a chance that my children and grandchildren will. Hopefully they wont.

Modern Day Torture Used by the Government

Techniques Is the governments way of saying torture. This Is very prevalent in George Rowel's dyspepsia novel â€Å"1984. † In the last section of the book, the main character Winston is tortured severely for going against Big Brother and then killed right after. They brainwashed him in the process and got him to believe in things he knew weren't true. As horrifying that is, it strangely resembles the way the united States government gets information. Though it Is In no way proven to always get accurate Information, the US along with many other countries still use this Orwellian method of control.The question is why. In 1984, Winston was being tortured as a result of him rebelling against Big Brother. The reason the Party tortured him was because they didn't want him to die a martyr. They wanted to completely alter the way he thought and make him believe anything they said. Though he hated the Party originally, after torture he was convinced that, â€Å"He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother† (Orwell 245). To torture information out of someone is one thing but to change the way they think about something they are strongly opinionated about is another.This Just shows how much torture he went through and how damaging is was. The Party accomplished their mission in changing his mindset, which is much different than the goals when torturing modern day. Today, torture is used to accomplish a much deferent task. The mall purpose Is to extract Information from people, usually terrorists. When officials get no results after Interrogating a terrorist, they might use enhanced Interrogation techniques. This is a nice way of saying that they physically and psychologically torture information out of them. The reason is they are desperate.If the officials hind America is waiting for them to find good information, they will get it regardless of how false it is or how inhumane they must be to get it. Even though it is very possible they are bei ng told lies, officials use that Information because they are either desperate for a lead or want to back something up. A fairly recent example Is Bush with the Iraq war. He himself approved of advanced Interrogation techniques and did not seem very sorrowful after seeing images of American soldiers torturing Iraq prisoners. Bush seemed to wave the image off saying they were just a,†few bad apples,† (Bush CTD in Johnson).He saw little significance in this story suggesting he was not surprised nor appalled. In 1984, It seems that torture Is almost always successful. The Party's goal Is to make the torture victim believe anything they say, even if it goes against everything the person believes. They are then no longer a martyr and are killed as a lover of Big Brother. However. It is hard to say if anyone really succeeds when torturing modern day. Torturing usually results in three things; false information, psychologically and physically harmed individuals, and disappointe d looks from many other nations.It is dangerous to put value Into any Information received through torture because It can it. If they genuinely know nothing about what they are being tortured for, they will still continuously be tortured until they speak. Bush falsely accused Iraq of holding Weapons of Mass Destruction (Wands) by doing this. This helped spark the Iraq war and lead to the death of thousands of people including innocent civilians. Torture also leads to the physical and psychological pain of the torture victim. In 1984, both of these are evident when Orwell described Cilia's face and with Winston hanged mindset after being tortured.In America, evidence of torture is usually not visible on the persons body because many versions of torture are more psychological than physical. Some examples are water boarding or Chinese water torture. Water boarding is the act of trying someone down, putting a rag over their mouth and pouring water over it to mimic the feeling if drownin g. They wait until the person begins suffocating to take the rag off for a quick break to ask for information. Chinese water torture is restraining someone on a bed so they cannot move (usually their ands are tied above their head and their head is in a head restraint so it cannot move at all).They simply let water drop on your forehead one drop at a time usually alone in a room. As time passes, the psychological terror builds up in the victim and they eventually beg for it to stop. Other countries and also Americans see this treatment and begin to question the government. They question the methods of obtaining information and what the government considers inhumane treatment. This questioning does not happen in 1984 because no one knows what happens when someone vanishes and if they so much as questioned Big Brother they would be unwished.Today's society is much better because we can question our government and protestor our opinions without being tortured and killed. Orwellian meth od of torture is used to get people to believe in what the government wants them to believe. Modern day torture is used to get people to give information supporting what the government believes and what it wants to hear. Today, if the government uses torture all they will receive is false information, disappointed looks from American citizens and other nations, and psychologically and physically harmed people.

Schizophrenia And Modern Treatments. - 935 Words

Schizophrenia and Modern Treatments Shelby Kaseman University of Toledo Mental illnesses are becoming more and more prominent in the lives of people today. The most common of these illnesses are mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder. However, schizophrenia, which is not a mood disorder, affects the lives of many people as well. Treatment is a very important part of any illness, but this is especially true when it comes to schizophrenia. Without the proper treatment, people dealing with schizophrenia can have an exceptionally hard time functioning on a daily basis and in the community. Over the past few decades, many different options have been developed to help those who suffer from schizophrenia. These treatments combat the symptoms that patients with schizophrenia deal with. Medication is the foundation on which treatment of schizophrenia is based. Oftentimes, medication is combined with one or several types of psychotherapy to help the patient deal with their illness the best that they can. Antipsychotics are the most common and most effective type of medication used to treat schizophrenic patients. They are â€Å"effective in suppressing specific positive symptoms of psychosis such as hallucinations, delusions, and thought disturbance† which is why they are the most popular type of medication for schizophrenic patients (Shean, p.140). The main goal of antipsychotics is to effectively control symptoms at the lowest dosage possible. 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