The Curious Case of Alzheimer's Disease

Our brain is constantly working around the clock, allowing us to store both long term and also short term memories. It's quite fascinating how it's able to do so if you ask me. Being able to recall a memory from my first trip to Washington when I was eight years old to quickly memorizing a couple of key notes for my quiz tomorrow (which will more than likely slip my mind after the class has finished) has always been an interesting observation. It's not surprising to discover that other people find this topic intriguing as well. What I want to focus on, however, is not the process by which we store memories, but the process by which we lose our memories. Or at least, what happens when we lose the ability to form and recall them. 

The symptom/condition I just described is known as Alzheimer's disease. If you don't already know about it, let me just take a quick moment to fill you in on a couple of important details. Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that affects more than five million people worldwide. Chances of getting this dreadful disease typically increases with age, although people younger than 40 have occasionally been known to suffer from it. In addition to affecting primarily older individuals, it has also been reported that 1 in 3 senior citizens will die from Alzheimer's, and as of recently, researchers have found that women are the main candidates for developing the disease. I've decided to include two short video's, the first of which is below and explains what is actually occurring in the brain (physiology) of someone who has Alzheimer's since I feel everybody should have a basic understanding of this massive epidemic, while the second is a link to the VIDEO that was recently published and is based solely on statistics and facts. 

Call me crazy, but after gathering all of that information, getting old does not look too good for anyone at the moment. I don't know anyone who suffers from this kind of condition, luckily, but I would imagine it must be extremely sad and scary for anyone who has a family member or friend living with it. I've read articles and have seen many videos, like this one, regarding this topic and can not imagine how it would feel to have a parent or grandparent who can't remember who they're speaking with. I wish I could write that there's a cure out there for this disease,  but unfortunately there's none. There are, however, certain drugs that help with cognitive and behavioral symptoms and a handful of preventative measures (recommended by doctors) that may keep you in the clear from developing the disease. At the end of the day, I have nothing but big hopes and wish this post can serve of some importance.