Memory is the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information as defined by the world. Memories are the most precious objects that the brain can store. They hold our best moments of our lives, yet also our worst. They are what make humans so special.  In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer noticed significant patterns of change in brain tissue of an woman who died of an mental illness. Her symptoms were memory loss, unpredictable behavior and trouble speaking. This would later be the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is an progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memories and humans abilities to think. It occurs in the mid-60’s and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. It is an form of Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning. Many scientists have tried to cure this disease, but some believe it is irreversible. Now, in 2017 we have moved closer to the cure, yet still haven’t found one. It’s been over 100 years and we still haven’t found a cure. Although the cure for Alzheimer’s Diseases has yet to happen, with increasing technology and medicines the efficacy for a cure is becoming better and better which shows progress and hope for a cure. 

Throughout the year’s dementia has become an increasingly prevalent disease which has effected many, many people. In 2050 it is projected that 135 million people worldwide will have some sort of dementia (Gordon 1).  Many doctors emphasize on early diagnosis to help prevent or slow down the effects. Although this may not seem like much it has greatly reduced the numbers that could be of patients. They problem is it’s not always apparent that a patient has the dementia until the symptoms are too strong. Then the difficulty is diagnosing which subtype the patient has which leads to Alzheimer’s. Practitioners are usually the first process in diagnosing patients with early onset Alzheimer’s. Usually the patient will come in complaining of memory loss or something basic and doctors are unable in diagnosing the disease. What hospitals and doctors’ offices have been doing is training students in the medical field to be able to recognize these symptoms early on so it is easier to hold off the disease. They doctor should check the patients family history thoroughly to see if it’s in the genes which is an huge part in causing the disease. They then do blood tests, such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate, urea and electrolytes, thyroid function, vitamin B12, and folate. Midstream specimen of urine, chest radiography, and electrocardiography (Gordon 2). These help access the function of any patients body and also is correlated to their memory.  Now technology is increasing and allowing doctors to identify this disease quicker such as using Cerebrospinal fluid sampling which is used to help identify causes of dementia (Gordon 3). Amyloid which is an big factor in the creation of Alzheimer’s is able to be captured on images in the brain which also helps doctors catch the disease. There is no cure only treatments but with the recent expansion of technology anything is possible. 

Throughout the country many doctors are using new technology and discoveries to beat this disease. Doctors at John Hopkins are starting to discover that these “memory proteins” are vital for cognitive function and memory. They enable us to remember the faintest of memories. They lower the levels of these proteins and the greater the chance of Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors believe if they can recreate this protein, synthesize it for example, that they can help slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.  The Doctors at John Hopkins have been testing engineered mice and noticed that this memory protein called NPTX2 is linked to Alzheimer’s Disease. They reason this protein is important is because as mentioned amyloid plagues are linked to the disease. Well doctors at John Hopkins believe that through their studies that maybe amyloid plagues aren’t as important. Recent studies show that NPTX2 can cause memory loss if not accepted by neurons nearby. As stated by Paul Worley, a doctor at John Hopkins “These findings represent something extraordinarily interesting about how cognition fails in human Alzheimer’s Disease” (Hopkins 1). This could change the whole entire approach to curing Alzheimer’s Disease. Maybe doctors and scientists have been trying to solve this problem the completely wrong way. Instead of doing subtraction they’ve been basically doing addition. 

An experiment on the drug rivastigmine, which is used to treat patients with Alzheimer’s, was conducted by Dr. Rosler is showing progress in the treatment of patients. 725 patients with mild to severe patients were tested on with approval by the government. They were given 4 mg a day if mild symptoms and 6-12 mg if they were severe. Some patients were given the placebo to have a control (Rosler 1).  The study noticed that cognitive function for those given the placebo became worse obviously because they were given any treatment and those given 6-12 mg showed much better improvement in their cognitive skills and showed hope for future treatments. This lead to an conclusion that rivastigmine is an effective and helpful drug for the treatment of Alzheimer patients. This was conducted over 6-month period and showed that with new technology and medicine the treatment of this drug could become an possibility. 

Although treatment and technology has improved a cure has yet to become reality. Dr. Frank Longo is a neurologist at Stanford and has cured Alzheimer’s in mice many, many times yet can’t cure it in humans. He evens states that “We have cured in mice many times. Why can’t we move that success to people (Park 1)? He even has created his own pharmaceutical company dedicated to creating new drugs to cure patients with this disease. He has created an drug that shows promise and is safe in humans, yet it still has yet to cure it. It only slows down the effects. Decades have gone by since the discovery of Alzheimer’s and no cure. Maybe there is no way to cure dementia, but if doctors and people thought like that all throughout history there is no way we would have made it this far. As an species we have defied many plagues and attacks and showed that we are a dominant species. We continue to evolve and think past our limits. So why should this disease stop us? It shouldn’t, and it won’t. 

Alzheimer’s is thought to begin many years before dementia was diagnosed.  Doctors believe that it may start in your forties or fifties and not your sixties or seventies. The doctors are starting to take a look at the amyloid beta accumulation which causes the disease and how it functions and alters the brains structure. Doctors believe that over 13.5 million individuals in the U.S. alone will obtain this disease (Sperling 1).  There is a correlation with age and cognitive function. Doctors are striving to find the preclinical stages of AD before it starts to become dementia. This will allow for more effective treatments. Doctors have also taken notice that AD views of amyloid beta peptide build-up is a key event in the physiological process. In a hundred years the significant progress of diagnosing AD has increased and leads to a more helpful future. 

Recent studies have shown that coconut oil has a possible cure for Alzheimer’s. This was first founded by Dr. Newport when she discovered that her husband, who had AD started to show improvements when adding coconut oil to his diet. Coconut oil is a type of fat, and usually is associated as an bad thing to implement in any humans diet, yet for some reason coconut oil was helping doctor Newport’s husbands symptoms.  Yet, real coconut oil is actually good for you. This is because hydrogenated coconut oil causes trans-fats which begin to clog arteries and cause heart disease. Real coconut oil does not have these fats which is an much healthier version of what humans need. Dr. Newport began to study other patients with coconut oil and noticed significant improvements of memory in patients. She later discovered that coconut oil is “brain food” ( Schmid 1).  Brains feed off of sugar and when the brain is under stress or diseased it can’t process sugar as well so ketones are the second best option. Well, as it turns out, ketones are very prevalent in coconut oil and that is why it is so helpful. 

So what does all this research mean. Well, for the sake of progress in finding a cure, ketones seem to be a big factor in treatment and amyloid beta seems to be the causing factor. There are still many other factors that are causing this disease that we don’t know about. As we continue to dive into the science of AD, there is also other ways to prevent such a disease and that is through brain exercises. Changing your routine and consistently doing certain exercises helps strengthen your brain. Not only is medicine so important, but the daily routines of our life play a factor in treating AD. That is what makes it so hard to defeat this disease. There isn’t just one pill yet that can just be swallowed and cure the disease. We aren’t in that point of our technology. The brain is so complex and so powerful that it makes sense that a cure is not easy to obtain. They brain does so much more than just remember things. Everything we do in our lives is controlled by our brain. Doctors are starting to realize that maybe to fix this problem we have to start earlier in our lives at like 30 or 40 before we get in our 60’s and 70’s. Our routine could be a huge factor in curing this disease. Doctors have thought for some time that people with the gene for Alzheimer’s Disease should change their routine every now and then because it could for some reason cause plagues and build up in the brain. New technology is needed and someday it will be here. At some point we will be, but as of right now we aren’t. 

Some doctors do not believe a cure will ever be possible, because it is impossible to revive dead neurons. Neurons are these tiny little cells scattered all throughout the nervous system of the human body and make up the brain. These neurons are able to send signals to one another through these tiny proteins called acetylcholine. These tiny proteins enable us to send signals from one cell to another. Well, when a neuron dies, these build up and eventually lead to plagues. Doctors are starting to realize that until we can cure dead neurons it is going to be very hard to cure Alzheimer’s disease. So what doctors are trying to do is using an medication that inhibits acetylcholinesterase so they can’t build up. Even then, doctors believe we are only on track to prevent this temporarily. Dealing with the nervous system is a very difficult ordeal and has made dealing with this disease very hard to say the least. There is still hope though.

Recent studies at a facility in St. Louis show that people with Onset Alzheimer’s can have the gene but not be affected by Alzheimer’s disease.  This is very encouraging for a cure, because for some reason these humans exhibit a nature in their genes for Alzheimer’s, yet they have not acquired the disease at all in their life. Doctors are researching them and using these people to the best of their advantage to obtain a cure. Some of the doctors at this facility believe that a medication to help cure/prevent this disease will be in the works and tested on humans in 2019. This means that after almost 110 years, a cure could be right in our faces. 

AD effects not just only the person with the disease, but also loved ones as well. AD patients can be violent and mean because they forget where they are, who they are, and what they were doing and can hurt loved ones and friends. They also can become depressed which only worsens things because the brain is still being effected. Guilt is also a very common occurrence in people who are around the person with AD because they feel guilty for past treatment of the patient or guilty for not wanting to take care of the patient.  Loved ones can also experience grief and anger because they wish they had the person back they used to know. This disease is so terrible because it attacks our memories which are one the greatest things a human can have. This disease like any other illness can put stress on a household and family and corrupt younger children’s lives and well-being. This is why it is so prevalent we come closer to a cure for AD. They best thing any physician can do is keep the family informed of the patients well-being and create a hopeful atmosphere while other scientists continue creating better more efficient drugs and medicines. 

Although the cure for Alzheimer’s Diseases has yet to happen, with increasing technology and medicines the efficacy for a cure is becoming better and better which shows progress and hope for a cure.  Some doctors doubt a cure will ever happen, but everyone else believe different. There is too much evidence showing that within the next decade or two that we will have some sort of cure. Whether it be the patients in St. Louis with a recessive gene or the medication by Dr. Longo at Stanford, we are so close to beating this disease. Patients will be able to stop just popping pills and hoping for the best. Doctors will be able to give these patients and their families an answer. Something for them to cherish and hold onto. This disease may be terrible and confusing, but that will not stop humans from trying to fight it. 
