In news– A new study has found that older adults who were once infected with Covid-19 are at a much higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease within a year.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
- Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks.
- The disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer. In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness.
- It is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia.
- The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events.
- In most people with the disease — those with the late-onset type symptoms first appear in their mid-60s.
- Early-onset Alzheimer’s occurs between a person’s 30s and mid-60s and is very rare. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older adults.
- As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, self-neglect, and behavioral issues.
- The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is poorly understood.There are many environmental and genetic risk factors associated with its development. The strongest genetic risk factor is from an allele of APOE.
- Other risk factors include a history of head injury, clinical depression, and high blood pressure.
- The disease process is largely associated with amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and loss of neuronal connections in the brain.
- A probable diagnosis is based on the history of the illness and cognitive testing with medical imaging and blood tests to rule out other possible causes.
Source: The Indian Express
