Alzheimer's Informative Speech

1342 Words6 Pages
Have you ever had an experience where you forget the date or just had a split second moment when you forget what you were supposed to do? I’m pretty sure this happens to everyone and these experiences do not mean that you have a physiological or psychological illness. It is normal for people to become forgetful as they age, but what differentiates this from a more serious disease, like Alzheimer’s disease? “Alzheimer’s disease is the common form of dementia” (Wikipedia, 2011, para. 1). It is a progressive and degenerative disease of the brain that usually affects the elderly around the age of sixty. Alzheimer’s disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss in the brain and as the disease progresses, brain tissue starts to shrink and the…show more content…
My grandfather has always been the brightest and most intelligent person I know. From the day I learned how to understand my surroundings and even until today, my grandfather has always been my role model and someone that I look forward to become like. He always showed me by example on how to live life and the importance of believing in yourself. One thing that I really thank my grandpa for is teaching me how to play basketball. These are the moments that I will never forget, long early mornings at the basketball court practicing on my game behind our apartment. My grandfather was always healthy man. He had a daily routine of waking up every day at 6 am to exercise in the park near our apartment and only ate low cholesterol, less oily foods. However on one, unknown day Alzheimer’s disease stroked…show more content…
Before my grandfather was diagnosed, my family and I noticed small changes such as forgetting the placement of his personal items and having behavioral changes. We thought it was just “senior” symptoms or minor things and that he wanted our attention, because I was always busy with schoolwork and the varsity basketball team and my family was always busy with work. It was until my family and I had discovered that my grandfather had stopped exercising at the park for two weeks, constantly being easily irritated, being confused of his surrounding, such as staring off to space when we were asking him questions, and forgetting the placement of items, such as keys, that we realized that there was something wrong with him. Consequently, my dad made the earliest appointment possible for my grandfather to see his home doctor. After having the MRI and PET scans, the doctors also tested my grandfather across many domains such as memory, language, problem solving, and perceptual skills. The results of these tests proved that my grandfather has Alzheimer’s disease. The doctor told us that there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. But I remember some medications that were prescribed. Tacrine, which was a drug that was used to improve memory, was prescribed. There were also some antidepressant drugs and anti-anxiety medicines that prescribed which
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