Depression

            New Ideas Energize Alzheimer's Battle.
             Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive disease of the brain, which is characterized by confusion, loss of memory, disorientation, restlessness, speech disturbances, inability to carry out purposeful movements, and hallucinations. In 1906, the first described disease was by a German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer. The disease affects 2.5 to 3 million people in the United States and is a leading cause of dementia among the elderly. The Alzheimer's disease usually affects after the age of 65, but a rare and very aggressive form of the disease, known as "early-onset" Alzheimer's disease, can affect people as young as the ages of thirty. Although there are no cures for Alzheimer's disease, therapies are available to help reduce the harshness of the symptoms. The average survival rates of person with the disease are between 5 and 10 years of age. Although many people survive 15 years or more, it's usually do to improvements in treatment. .
             The idea is that the disease starts when small clumps of proteins, which are amyloid, start interrupting signals between the nerve cells in the brain. At this point the doctors would surgically go into the brain and remove these clumps of protein. But the problem lies if the disease continues to form after the surgery then the dead cells could clump and cause more problems then before. The work is still in progress, and there are still therapies progressing, but until completion, it's still in the works. Another choice is to replace the entire nerve cells, but this is usually impossible. One of the last ideas is to use the antibodies use their own immune system. What happens is the doctors would stimulate the production of antibodies that would attach to themselves to the small amyloid clusters and sweep them away. All are still in progress, but they hope that the cure or possible healing would happen in the near future, hopefully by the end of my lifetime.