Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and degenerative disease which usually attacks the human brain and ends up impairing an individual’s reasoning, memory, thinking and general behaviors. It is a common form of dementia which was named after Alois Alzheimer who was the first scientist to examine the brain of a 51 year old woman in 1906 before she died of dementia. Alzheimer found out that there were plaque-like structures which in the woman’s neurons and he recognized them as being the main pathological changes.Cause of Death in Alzheimer’s Disease

The Alzheimer’s association is one of the world’s Health Organization which is known for its voluntary care of Alzheimer’s patients. The main mission of this association is to try as much as possible to be able to eliminate and control the Alzheimer’s disease through support and research and to try to provide support to all the individuals who are affected by the disease, and to help in the reduction of the risks of dementia which most of the citizens of the USA face through the promotion of special programs like the promotion of brain health program.

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In the United States of America, legislation was introduced so as to be able to improve the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and to strengthen care planning in the Alzheimer’s patients. Studies have shown that the early diagnosis and recognition of Alzheimer’s disease helps the medical practitioners to be able to provide better medical services to the Alzheimer’s patients and to reduce the spread of the disease which is greatly affecting the population of the older adults in the United States of America (Cummings and Cole, 2002).

In the USA, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are common ailments and diseases which are commonly found in the older adults. It was estimated that about 5 million people living in America were living with the Alzheimer’s disease and the leaders of America had to intervene so as to come up with better ideas on how to handle the disease because if nothing had been done, there would be more than 14 million Americans who had the age of 65 years and above would be victims of the Alzheimer’s disease by the year 2040. This meant that if the disease was not controlled from spreading very fast, the United States would spend trillions of dollars into treating Alzheimer’s disease.

The Alzheimer’s Act of 2009 was a bill made by the government of the United States of America to amend the Public Health Service Act so that it could be able to fund the breakthroughs in the research of the Alzheimer’s disease by providing all the help that the care that the caregivers require so as to increase public education on the prevention of the Alzheimer’s disease. The sources of policy which were used to address the problem included legislation, regulation, budget, court decisions, and executive decisions.

The policy that was adopted to address the problem of Alzheimer’s disease was the creation of a panel by the USA government to concentrate and focus very much on the early recognition and detection of dementia in the older adults which is the majority of the population in the United states.Cause of Death in Alzheimer’s Disease This panel was supposed to determine the characteristics and other triggers of the disease which would require further assessment and then after coming up with the characteristics, they were supposed to come up with recommendations on the screening of different age brackets of the population. Alzheimer’s disease is a current epidemic in America.

This panel which was created by the Agency for Health care policy and Research in the USA which consisted of an 18 member interdisciplinary panel which comprised of psychiatrists, neurologists, geriatrician, psychologists, nurses, an internist, consumer representatives, and a social worker. The main objective of the panel was to try to increase the early assessment and recognition of dementia so that any condition which is treatable could be treated before it was too late for treatment where the reversible conditions can be treated immediately and to determine the non-reversible conditions which if they are diagnosed early enough, it can enable the family members of the patient to plan for a long term patient care (Cummings and Cole, 2002).

Dementia’s early symptoms can be mistaken or overlooked to be the normal aging of a person where this misdiagnosis can make the disease to become very severe in an individual as the age of the person advances (Cummings and Cole, 2002). It can also lead to harmful treatment due to this failure in the early diagnosis of the disease. If the disease is diagnosed early enough, the patient can be treated fully before the disease advances.

Alzheimer’s disease has become a social problem which is rapidly growing and a family affair. The caring for the people with Alzheimer’s disease has very high emotional, physical, and financial costs. This is because the patients demand to have day to day care, difficult decisions that the family members have to make into the placement of the sick family members into care facilities, and the changing family roles which are extremely difficult to handle (Beard et al., 1996).

Dementia is a very serious social, economic, and medical problem which is found in a majority number of the adult population of people who live in the United States. Dementia like the Alzheimer’s disease has been considered by many researchers to be potentially reversible or reversible which in other words can mean that the dementias and Alzheimer’s can be treated so as to be able to restore the near normal or the normal intellectual function of patient suffering from the disease (Cummings and Cole, 2002). Alzheimer’s disease together with the related Dementias bring about very high disability rates, a low productivity rate of the caregivers of the family and the patients, and bring about extremely high health care costs in trying to treat the Alzheimer’s patients. Researchers have also proven that some factors like the genetic factors play a very crucial part in the development of the Alzheimer’s disease. (Beard et al., 1996).

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The policies which were addressing this problem of Alzheimer’s disease have gradually changed over time.Cause of Death in Alzheimer’s Disease The time is changing at a very fast rate and so is the complexity of many diseases including Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is not only affecting the old adults but it is also affecting the young adults of about 30-40 years of age as compared to the past where only the old adult of above 65 years were affected (Kawas, et al., 2001). As the years have gone by, people’s bodies have greatly evolved and they have grown to be weaker as the years progress. The change in the technology is also another factor which has made the past policies obsolete. This is because new methods of research which involve the use on new technologies have replaced the old traditional methods of disease diagnosis where in the recent years, medical professionals can use computers and other specialized machines to be able to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and dementia (Breteler, 2001).

Past policies have been effective in addressing the problem of Alzheimer’s disease since they helped in educating patients, the patient’s families, and the health professionals about the symptoms which require the assessment for dementing disorders. These policies have also led to the improvement of the early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia through the identification of the areas of further research on early recognition (Kawas, et al., 2001). This has helped in the reduction of the wrong diagnosis of the Alzheimer’s disease which is considered to one of the fast spreading diseases in the United States on the elderly people.

The past policies were able to alleviate the problems they ought to address because they were able to find out certain triggers to the Alzheimer’s disease which were supposed to prompt the clinician to do an assessment on the patient for dementia (Breteler, 2001). They used an assessment instrument called the Functional Activities Questionnaire which is a very effective tool for assessing the functional impairment of an individual. This made the clinicians not to diagnose the patient as having signs of aging. The clinicians were also able to use factors like the age of the patient, physical disability, sensory impairment, level of education, and cultural results to be able to interpret the results from the tests (Kawas, et al., 2003).

The past policies have created various problems because the research teams which had been put in place to help in the research of the Alzheimer’s disease and dementia sometimes get no evidence out of the screening tests for them to recommend the most appropriate and efficient tool for screening the disease. In their research, some of these tests that they try out do not have any sensitivity for any dementia. Another problem is that the recognition of these symptoms in their early stages is very difficult since they cannot come up with a proper and efficient screening tool for the Alzheimer’s disease. This can lead to a wrong diagnosis and treatment of the disease.Cause of Death in Alzheimer’s Disease

The research for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease has developed over the last years to a point where the researchers and scientists have overlooked over other factors in controlling the disease like the possible interventions which are available like the immunization therapy, antioxidants, and the effects of the treatment of some diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular problems (Breteler, 2001). Researchers are putting in more efforts to help in the expansion on the knowledge that they have about the function of the brain in older people who are likely to increase their understanding on the disease and they are also working very hard to untangle all the biological, genetic, and other environmental factors which may result in the Alzheimer’s disease (Cummings and Cole, 2002). This effort by the researchers and the scientists has made it easier to manage and prevent the devastating Alzheimer’s disease. Cause of Death in Alzheimer’s Disease

The scientific advancements over the past few centuries have enabled the human race to avoid certain fatal and dreaded diseases. However, diseases seem to have their own minds and are ever evolving, presenting the necessity to stay up-to-date with the medical conditions of the body. One of the new and revelatory diseases that have made its mark in the world of medicine and diseases is cancer. Cancer refers to the unregulated growth of abnormal body cells. These cells, also known as cancerous cells, grow rapidly and without control (Yount, 1999). Normally, body cells undergo a period of division or multiplication, growth and ultimately death. However, cancerous cells do not undergo the same process. They multiply and grow rapidly and fail to undergo the last stage of death, also known as apoptosis (Panno, 2009). Apoptosis refers to regulated cell death. Failure to die means the cells remain within the body longer than the body had “planned”. The cancerous cells, therefore, take up the nutrients and oxygen meant for other cells, in the process depriving those cells of essential requirements. The result is the onslaught of complications, which if not nipped in the bud, may subsequently result in the demise of the victim. This essay discusses cancer as a disease, the effects on the body of the patient, its signs and symptoms and the possible measures taken to control it.Cancer Essay Sample

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According to the results of a survey released in 2008, cancer claimed the lives of more than 7.6 million people in the world in 2007 (Panno, 2009). Research has also demonstrated that the prevalence and risk of suffering from cancer shoots up tremendously with an increase in age (Master, 2003). Older people are more likely to suffer from cancer, even though there are certain types of cancer that are more prevalent in children. According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, 1.3 million people above the age of sixty-five are suffering from various types of cancer. The figure will expectedly increase to 4.1 million people in the next two decades.

Cancer usually starts with a small group of cells growing rapidly and out of control. These cancerous cells invade and colonize other neighboring normal body cells, tissues and organs, denying them crucial nutrients. Deprivation of nutrients has a negative consequence to these cells.Cancer Essay Sample The resultant effect is the cells tissues and organs do not perform their functions normally. When certain cells and tissues do not function normally, the body exhibits this as a disease through various symptoms, including fever and fatigue (Master, 2003). The tissues, cells and organs affected by the malignant cells (cancerous cells) determine the cancer patient is suffering from (Panno, 2009). Any organ of the body is a potential target for cancerous cells. There are over one hundred discovered and documented types of cancer. The various types of cancer include lung cancer, throat cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and brain cancer just to name a few (Panno, 2009). In the United States, lung cancer claims more lives than any other cancer. Among men, the three most common types of cancer are colon cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer. The three types of cancer that women in the United States suffer from are lung cancer, breast cancer, and cancer of the colon (Panno, 2009). Studies have also indicated that certain types of cancer are highly prevalent in some parts of the world. For example, stomach cancer is rare in the United States (Yount, 1999). However, in the Asian countries, Japan to be precise, the prevalence of stomach cancer is quite high. This trend has been associated with diet. An oncologist is a specialist in the research, study, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer.

The causes of most types of cancer are enigmatic. Nevertheless, certain trends and habits have been shown to increase the risk of suffering from cancer. Research has shown that most patients of cancer inherited it, to mean the disease is inheritable (Yount, 1999). Interference of genetic make-up, or mutation, causes the rise of cancerous cells. Mutagens are substances responsible for mutation. Carcinogen is the term used to describe such mutagens that cause cancer. These mutated genes pass on to the offspring, in the process setting off an unfamiliar growth of cells. These “alien” cells gradually develop into cancerous cells. Other chemicals, such as aflatoxin, which trigger mutation of genes, also cause cancer (Panno, 2009). Poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle (inactive lifestyle devoid of exercise regimes) may cause cancer too. Research has demonstrated that soft drinks, when taken frequently and in significant amounts pose the subject to high risk of suffering from prostate cancer (Panno, 2009). This is especially true for men. Industrially processed and refined foods also pose a high risk of suffering from cancer. These types of food are devoid of anti-oxidants, which go a long way in preventing the development of malignant cells. Other conditions and habits that predispose individuals to the risk of suffering from cancer include infections (viruses), radiations (excessive exposure to sunlight), obesity, excessive consumption of alcohol, and cigarette smoking (Yount, 1999). Radiations are the common cause of skin cancer.

There are various ways of detecting cancer, even though in most cases, it is not obvious.Cancer Essay Sample The signs and symptoms of cancer differ. This is because cancer affects many different organs and exhibits itself in varying ways according to the organ affected. For instance, colon cancer is commonly associated with diarrhea, blood in the stool and constipation. On the other hand, lung cancer is associated with coughing, chest pains and short breath (Panno, 2009). Some of the general symptoms that can point to cancer infection include fatigue, weight loss, fever and loss of appetite. In some types of cancer, there are no symptoms at all. In others, the symptoms do not become apparent until the disease has progressed and advanced to a higher stage, for example, pancreatic cancer (Master, 2003). Detection of cancer involves running of various tests. These tests are to ascertain whether there are cancerous cells in the body. These tests include Computed Tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, liver function tests, X-rays, screening and blood tests (in search of certain chemicals). Mammography is the screening of the breast in order to identify cancerous cells, while colonoscopy is the screening of the colon for the same purpose. However, the most commonly used method for cancer detection is conducting a biopsy (Master, 2003). This involves obtaining a sample of the suspected cancerous cells and subjecting them through a series of tests, including viewing under a microscope. Laboratory technicians obtain the cancerous cells from the body through a method called Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA), a process that involves injecting a needle into the body and retrieving the cells from a part of the body.

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Once detected, the metastasis (spread) of cancer is checked, and even treatment administered depending on the stage of the disease. The chances of survival of a patient depend on the part of the body affected by cancer and the extent/stage of the disease (Master, 2003). Treatment of cancer involves various processes, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy and surgery among others. Localized cancer (cancer that has not metastasized) can heal through therapy. Surgical excision of the affected parts of the body prevent the cancerous cells from spreading to the rest of the body as cancer cells can spread through the blood or the lymphatic system.Cancer Essay Sample Surgical excision is especially common in breast cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer (Master, 2003). Where surgery is not applicable or preferable, especially, if the disease is in the advanced stages, chemotherapy or radiation is applied. Sometimes, all the three procedures apply in order to cure an ailing patient. Chemotherapy and radiation treats cancer of lymph glands, also called lymphoma (Panno, 2009). Chemotherapy is a procedure that uses the understanding of the process of division and multiplication of cancerous cells. In this procedure, chemicals arrest the multiplication of the cells by interfering with their protein and DNA content. It is then easier to kill the cells after that. These treatment targets all rapidly dividing cell, not just malignant cells (Master, 2003). The procedure applies intermittently to give the body time to recover from its side effects. The side effects include fatigue, loss of hair, nausea and vomiting. It may also result to a weakened immune system. Radiation involves more or less the same process, only that in radiation therapy, gamma radiation and other types of radiation kill the malignant cells. It takes only a few minutes and is painless. However, it has side effects too, similar to the ones stated above. Immunotherapy involves stimulation of the body’s immune system to fight off the malignant cells.

Cancer is a dreadful disease, and the sound of its name alone sends chills down the spines of many people. However, aside from the fatality associated with it, it is a curable disease and patients need to keep that in mind (Yount, 1999). Patients should ensure they eat a well balanced diet, get enough rest and adhere to their medication. For those suspecting that they are suffering from cancer, they should seek medical tests as soon as possible as cancer is easier to cure in the early stages. Friends and family can contribute to the progress of their patient by encouraging and being supportive towards them. Cancer Essay Sample