Alzheimer’s disease

Did you ever briefly forget your friend’s name or have trouble recalling the name of a song on the radio? Many of us joke that it is an “early form of Alzheimer’s.” However, if you are younger than 60, the likelihood that you have Alzheimer’s disease is slim. The memory loss that most people experience can be attributed to many different reasons, such as lack of sleep, too much on their mind, anxiety, or depression. This memory loss tends to be brief, occasional, and has little impact on daily life.

Memory loss that occurs more frequently and that begins to impact a person’s life, however, is usually a type of dementia.

Dementias are usually irreversible and not curable.Dementia primarily affects the elderly and can have many origins. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, occurring about 65% of the time. However, it is also important to rule out other forms of dementia (differential diagnosis).

Some lists potential causes of dementia (sometimes referred to as "senility").

Neurologic disorders:
Stroke, Transient ischemic attack, Biswanger’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Pick’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Infections:
Encephalitis, Meningitis.

Metabolic disorders:
Thyroid, Pancreatic, Adrenal.

Cardiovascular disorders:
Vascular occlusion.

Medications:
• Anticholinergics—blocks action of acetylcholine, a nerve transmitter
• Sedative/hypnotic—sleeping pills
• Antihypertensives—blood pressure medicine

Toxins:
Heavy metals

Mental illness:
Schizophrenia, Depression, Substance abuse.

Vitamin deficiencies:
B12, Folate.

Intracranial causes:
Tumors, Subdural hematoma, Hydrocephalus, Abcesses.

Many of these causes, such as those listed under infections, metabolic disorders, medications, and vitamin deficiencies, can be treated and the dementia abates.

Since there are many possible reasons for dementia-like attributes, it is important to see a neurologist. A neurologist is a medical doctor who specializes in the brain and the disorders that affect the brain.

Neurologists often specialize in a particular brain disorder. For instance, one neurologist may treat primarily patients who have had a stroke (temporary or permanent loss of some body functioning),while other neurologists may treat primarily Alzheimer’s patients. Therefore, choosing an appropriate neurologist is one of the first steps in determining the correct diagnosis.

The neurologist will then assist in determining if a patient has a form of dementia. If it is concluded that it is dementia, the neurologist will further attempt to determine the likely cause.

The Use of Drugs

The problem that faces our society today is how to break the connection between our demand for drugs and the willingness of largely outside countries to supply this highly profitable trade. This is the same problem we have faced since narcotics and cocaine were outlawed by the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914, and we have yet to defeat it despite current expenditures of approximately $20 billion per year on "the war on drugs". The first step in meeting any challenge is always an intelligent and informed citizenry. The purpose of this series is to educate our readers so that they can make informed decisions about issues related to drugs and drug abuse.

Drug Addiction

The issues associated with drug use and abuse in contemporary society are vexing subjects, fraught with political agendas and ideals that often obscure essential information that teens need to know to have intelligent discussions about how to best deal with the problems associated with drug use and abuse.

Drugs: The Straight Facts aims to provide this essential information through straightforward explanations of how an individual drug or group of drugs works in both therapeutic and non-therapeutic conditions; with historical information about the use and abuse of specific drugs; with discussion of drug policies in the United States; and with an ample list of further reading.

From the start, the series uses the word "drug" to describe psychoactive substances that are used for medicinal or nonmedicinal purposes. Included in this broad category are substances that are legal or illegal. It is worth noting that humans have used many of these substances for hundreds, if not thousands of years. For example, traces of marijuana and cocaine have been found in Egyptian mummies; the use of peyote and Amanita fungi has long been a component of religious ceremonies worldwide; and alcohol production and consumption have been an integral part of many human cultures’ social and religious ceremonies. One can speculate about why early human societies chose to use such drugs.

Perhaps, anything that could provide relief from the harshness of life—anything that could make the poor conditions and fatigue associated with hard work easier to bear—was considered a welcome tonic. Life was likely to be, according to the seventeenth century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, "poor, nasty, brutish and short". One can also speculate about modern human societies’ continued use and abuse of drugs. Whatever the reasons, the consequences of sustained drug use are not insignificant—addiction, overdose, incarceration, and drug wars—and must be dealt with by an informed citizenry.