Alzheimer's Disease: Risk Factors, Pathophysiology, & Protective Measures - Essay Sample

Purpose

The purpose of the articles is to present a critical summary of the pathophysiological mechanism alongside the major risk factors behind Alzheimer's disease. They also reveal some other primary protective factors that lower the risk of the disease as a complementary overview of the article. Aligning to the response, the article has explained the concepts of cognitive reserve, diet issues alongside physical activities regarding the preventive measures of the condition. However, there are no specific factors that the articles point out as the confirmed preventive measures towards the condition.

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Design

The articles have utilized bibliometric information regarding human and animal diseases in various clinical areas. However, the grouping of data provided does not play to the underlying risk factors and level of evidence. The design of the articles has therefore provided inadequate descriptive analyses to complement the findings as categorized under every data.

Setting

The information provided in the articles is published from typical cases of Alzheimer's disease and the findings from clinical tests in the United States. For instance, the article of Alzheimer's Association provides that approximately 70% of the risk of contracting the disease in America is related to genetics (Alzheimer's Association, 2016). On the other hand, the article by Silva, Loures, and Alves takes a typical scenario in the United States to present the condition as the most common mode of dementia. The information provided in the articles is sourced from existing instances data regarding the menace.

Subject Interventions

The primary intervention in both articles encompasses the underlying mechanisms that take place in the process of cognitive decline alongside the destruction of neurons and synapse in the human body. Besides, the articles explain the emotionally related processes that facilitate the aforementioned fall in cognition. They are, therefore, more educative in the field of Neurogenic Disorders.

Outcome Measures

The resulting measures about the critical review of the articles explain the correlation between location, the density of tau Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), alongside the signs and intensity of Alzheimer's disease dementia (Alzheimer's Association, 2016). However, the articles fail to reveal the critical role of NFTs regarding the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease but exceptionally explain the relationship with the NFTs. They only reveal tau NFTs as the major facilitator of downstream events in the process of neuron-degeneration.

Conclusion

Generally, the articles reveal that the main risks of getting Alzheimer's disease are multifactorial. The knowledge is therefore useful in devising preventive measures as the articles also explain the avoidable risk as well as non-preventable factors. The former classification entails diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, and obesity, along with head injury (Silva et al., 2019). On the other hand, non-avoidable factors are age and genetics (Gordon et al., 2017). The article by Alzheimer's Association lists the non-preventable risk factor like genetics and categorizes them as manageable since the primary culprit in the case is the e4 allele gene for Apolipoprotein E (ApoE). The educative natures of the articles have great significance to the citizens of the United States.

Impressions

The journal reviews give profound clinical impressions regarding Alzheimer's disease. The major information from the articles typically manifests in a sequential approach to the condition. In the explanation of how the disease develops, the articles state the progressive loss of episodic memory alongside certain behavioral disorders. Besides, it also points out the disorders that cause a lack of visuospatial skills like apathy, aggressiveness alongside depression as contained in the Alzheimer's Association article. The explanations accord the article with an apparent clinical-touch. However, the implication for the future speech-language pathology according to the articles reveals the possibility of the decline of the acquired factors of Alzheimer's disease-like cerebrovascular diseases and dyslipidemia. The articles suggest that speech-language pathology may delay the remarkable pathophysiological agents that attack the patient's brains.

References

Alzheimer's Association. (2016). 2016 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 12(4), 459-509. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/

Gordon, B. A., Blazey, T., Su, Y., Hari-Raj, A., Dincer, A., Flores, S., ... & Cairns, N. J. (2017). EXAMINING LONGITUDINAL NEUROIMAGING PATTERNS IN AUTOSOMAL DOMINANT ALZHEIMER DISEASE: FINDINGS FROM THE DOMINANTLY INHERITED ALZHEIMER NETWORK. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 13(7), P186.

Silva, M.V.F., Loures, C.d.M.G., Alves, L.C.V. et al. Alzheimer's disease: risk factors and potentially protective measures. J Biomed Sci 26, 33 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12929-019-0524-y