Hi Dr. Janet and Classmates,

Since I am a gerontology focus for my degree, I wanted to do my discussion question for unit

on Alzheimer’s disease. I cannot even imagine how hard it would even be to not know the

things that you used to know when you were a younger person. This disease has and knows no

barriers therefore, anyone can get it. I too work with many elderly people and have worked with

those that have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. When I work with people with this disease, I

try to put myself in their shoes and wonder if I had this disease/condition the absolute worst case

scenario would be if I had a caregiver that was not caring or patient with me how I would feel.

With all of this in mind, I have vowed to always treat a patient with any condition with the fullest

of respect. We all just never know who might get this disease and because of this we all have to

be supportive of all of our patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

A little history about this disease helps in its understanding of how difficult it can be not for

just the patient, but also for the family that helps in caring for the patient with Alzheimer’s

disease. Dementia is a similar condition that is often confused with Alzheimer’s disease. The

statistics contain that Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 80% of all dementia cases. The highest

prevalence in Alzheimer’s is of course the elderly and the oldest age groups. I found it incredibly

interesting that over five million people in the United States have this disease. With the increase

in elderly people, the more cases of Alzheimer’s disease we will see. The most surprising

Statistic is that by the year 2050, every 33 seconds a person will develop this illness (Davis et al,

2012).

The patho physiology of this disease consist of beta amyloid plaques and