Alzheimers

Question 1

What is dementia?

Answer 1

This is an umbrella term for the symptoms of a group of diseases of the brain, that always:
• Impairs thought (often our memory)
• Impairs everyday activities of daily living (critical)!!!!
Often involve behavioural and physiological problems

Question 2

What is AD?

Answer 2

Progressive dementia with specific Alzheimer neuropathy in the brain
Criteria for a definitive diagnosis:
1. Clinical picture of progressive dementia consistent with AD (especially memory)
2. Confirmation in brain tissue of Alzheimer neuropathy

Question 3

What is the clinical picture of AD?

Answer 3

• Disorientation to place
• Disorientation to time
• Forgetting daily or recent events
- Progressive worsening and disrupts everyday life

Question 4

What is the brain neuropathy of AD?

Answer 4

Plaques and tangles

Question 5

What are plaques?

Answer 5

Sticky clumps of beta amyloid (outside neurons)

Question 6

What are tangles?

Answer 6

Abnormal tau protein (within neurons)

Question 7

What happens to the plaques and tangles in an AD brain?

Answer 7

Increasingly high levels are found in an abnormal distribution

Question 8

What are the risk factors for AD?

Answer 8

• Genetic risk factors
  
  • SES related factors
  • Life habits (e.g. smoking)
  • HTN and other vascular risk factors
  • Occupational exposure
  • Sensory loss
  • Depression
• Head trauma

Question 9

What are the protective factors for AD?

Answer 9

• High education
  
  • Antihypertensive drugs, statins, NSAIDs
  • Hearing correction
  • Diet: fish, vegetables, low to moderate alcohol
  • Rich social network
  • Mental activities
    Physical activities