Genes And Disease Diabetes

Genes And Disease Diabetes

Alzheimer's Disease - Learn About Alzheimer's Disease And How Are Alzheimer's Disease Treated

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting over half of all dementia sufferers. Alzheimer's disease is caused by a loss of brain cells, probably related to an imbalance in the chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) in the brain.

Alzheimer's Disease Medications [Sorted by Popularity]

Reminyl®, Exelon®.

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How are people affected?

Over time, their mental abilities deteriorate, gradually progressing through forgetting important matters, getting confused about where they are and what day it is, to becoming lethargic and withdrawn and starting to neglect personal hygiene.

The sufferer may tend to dwell in the past and mistake friends and neighbours for long-departed family members. Conversation may become repetitive and the personality may alter as people develop odd or uncharacteristic behaviours.

In the later stages of the illness, sufferers lose insight and may not be aware of their plight, which makes the disease particularly hard for carers to bear.

Who develops Alzheimer's disease

The main risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is increased age. As a population ages, the frequency of Alzheimer's disease continues to increase. Ten percent of people over 65 years of age and 50% of those over 85 years of age have Alzheimer's disease. Unless new treatments are developed to decrease the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease, the number of individuals with Alzheimer's disease in the United States is expected to be 14 million by the year 2050.

There are also genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. Most patients develop Alzheimer's disease after age 70. However, 2%-5% of patients develop the disease in the fourth or fifth decade of life (40s or 50s). At least half of these early onset patients have inherited gene mutations associated with their Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, the children of a patient with early onset Alzheimer's disease who has one of these gene mutations has a 50% risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

There is also a genetic risk for late onset cases. A relatively common form of a gene located on chromosome 19 is associated with late onset Alzheimer's disease. In the majority of Alzheimer's disease cases, however, no specific genetic risks have yet been identified.

Other risk factors for Alzheimer's disease include high blood pressure (hypertension), coronary artery disease, diabetes, and possibly elevated blood cholesterol. Individuals who have completed less than eight years of education also have an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. These factors increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, but by no means do they mean that Alzheimer's disease is inevitable in persons with these factors.

All patients with Down syndrome will develop the brain changes of Alzheimer's disease by 40 years of age. This fact was also a clue to the "amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease"

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Diabetes Question?

I am doing a project on genetically linked diseases and the one I chose was diabetes. I have to explain how it is passed down through genes but i'm not sure I understand myself. My boyfriend has a little brother that has Type 1 or juvenile diabetes but neither one of his parents do. He is not overweight and has had it since he was very young, my boyfriend doesn't have diabetes either so how in the world does his brother have it? My grandmother also has Diabetes but none of her kids do. Please help me understand!
Thanks =]

I have Type 1, but no one in my family has it. I understand that the causes are not really known, although there is a gene that makes you predisposed to Type 1 Diabetes. In other words, if you have the gene, you may or may not develop diabetes, but if you don't have the gene, you will not get Type 1 diabetes. Type 2 is very different in nature, although it shares the same symptoms as Type 1. They are really two different diseases. Those who are susceptible to Type 1 are also susceptoble to other auto-immune disorders.

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