NUR113 Nursing Concepts

• Prepare an electronic poster using a single PowerPoint that provides the following:

o An overview of strategies for promoting health and wellness in people with   the condition - Dementia

o A list of available electronic resources for health professionals and consumers (x 2 each) including details of how to access each resource

Following completion of the poster, use the narration (or Insert Audio) function within PowerPoint to record a critique of each electronic resource listed on your poster. Your critique should consider:

o Who is the most appropriate user of the resource (target population)

o Apparent benefits of and limitations to the resource

o What will the user gain from accessing the resource.

Overview of the disease  It is a type of dementia that occurs due to neurodegenerative disorders. It is the most common and frequent forms of dementia and accounts for 60-80% of the cases (Dubois et al. 2014, p.614). People above the age of 65 years are mostly at the risk of having this disease.  There are various stages of this dementia and the symptoms of the disease worsen with the advancement in the later stage of the disease.  In the early stage, there is mild level of memory loss. However, during the late stage the patient loses the ability to have conversation with other people. In the United States Alzheimer ranks sixth among all the diseases, that causes human death (Norton et al., 2014).

At present, there is not much treatment for this disease and hence is considered to be non-curable disease.  Few forms of medications are there, which can provide temporary relief to this disease. In the year 2015, approximately 48 million people all across the globe have suffered from Alzheimer. The genetic cause is one of the main factors that cause that Alzheimer disease. 0.1% of the people suffer from the autosomal sex-linked disorders that cause Alzheimer. The Alzheimer causes the cell within the brain to prevent the complete cycle of the cell that in turn results in the memory cell death. This causes the loss of memory.  Donepezil, Rivastigmne and Galatamine are few of the few drugs that can be used in treatment of Alzheimer.  

Risk or protective Factors  Age is considered to be one of the biggest risk factors of the Alzheimer’s disease as most of the patients are above the age of 65 years. One in every 9 people on average above the age of 65 is the victim of this disease. Above the age of 85 years, one in every three people on average suffers from the disease. The genetic factors are also other major risk factors. Hence, the people coming from the family with history of Alzheimer have the risk f having the disease. The genes like the E-e4 and APOE-ee4 are involved in the disease of Alzheimer. The deterministic genes are responsible for directly causing Alzheimer’s disease.  

The genes that code for the proteins like amyloid precursor protein, presenilin-1 and presenlin-2 are also responsible for the Alzheimer’s disease.  Nearly 50% of all the Alzheimer’s case is caused due to long-term effects of the diabetes, obesity and high level of blood pressure (Alzheimer's Association, 2013, p.209). Person with regular habit of smoking and drinking also have high-level risks of memory loss disease. Individuals with lower levels of physical exercise also have the risks of Alzheimer’s disease. A healthy form of lifestyle is the key to deal with all the consequences of the dementia like diseases.  The individuals with poor diet will also have the risks of Alzheimer’s disease. High levels of cholesterols also have the risks. The people who have suffered from any major head injuries also have the risk to memory loss related disease. Other clinical conditions like the Parkinson’s disease, chronic kidney disease or genetic disease like Down Syndrome’s is also responsible for the cause memory loss disease.         

Available Electronic Resources  The Alzheimer’s Association has provided the guidelines to deal with all types of people to deal with the matters related to the treatment of the disease.  The association also encourages further research work, which will help in the development of the treatment process of Alzheimer’s disease.  It is also essential to increase the awareness level of the public about the ways to deal with the consequence of Alzheimer’s disease.  This will help the public to adopt preventive measures and also seek proper medical assistance to deal with the consequence of the diseases. Two  of the Australian electronic resources for health professional are NDSS and RACPG. 

Prevention and wellness of the disease  Once the Alzheimer’s disease reaches the final stage it is permanently not possible to cure the disease. Hence it is essential to adopt the protective measures from the early onset of the diseases. Keeping and maintain a healthy brain is one of the key features to deal with the all types of dementia related disease. The risks that are involved in the process Alzheimer’s can be reduced by having healthy diets and also to engage in regular physical exercise (Sperling et al., 2014, p.608).  

The social status of every individual also has a deep impact mental health of individual. Hence, it is important for every people to have effective communication within all friends and relatives.   It is also essential to give up all the bad habits like drinking and smoking, which increases the risks of poor mental health. Folic acid, Vitamin D, vitamin B12 and magnesium are few of the essential nutrients that are needed for having healthy mental health (Andrieu et al., 2015, p.926). Mental simulation is also one of the most important steps that can help to deal with the consequence of Alzheimer’s disease. Young children need to be engaged in all types’ mental exercise that will help them to deal with all types of mental health challenges (Pasinetti, et al., 2015, p.1203).        

Dubois, B., Feldman, H. H., Jacova, C., Hampel, H., Molinuevo, J. L., Blennow, K., ... & Cappa, S. (2014).

Advancing research diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease: the IWG-2 criteria. The Lancet Neurology, 13(6), 614-629. Norton, S., Matthews, F. E., Barnes, D. E., Yaffe, K., & Brayne, C. (2014).

Potential for primary prevention of Alzheimer's disease: an analysis of population-based data. The Lancet Neurology, 13(8), 788-794. Alzheimer's Association. (2013). 2013

Alzheimer's disease facts and figures. Alzheimer's & dementia, 9(2), 208-245. Pasinetti, G. M., Wang, J., Ho, L., Zhao, W., & Dubner, L. (2015).

Roles of resveratrol and other grape-derived polyphenols in Alzheimer's disease prevention and treatment. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular Basis of Disease, 1852(6), 1202-1208. Andrieu, S., Coley, N., Lovestone, S., Aisen, P. S., & Vellas, B. (2015).

Prevention of sporadic Alzheimer's disease: lessons learned from clinical trials and future directions. The Lancet Neurology, 14(9), 926-944. Sperling, R., Mormino, E., & Johnson, K. (2014).

The evolution of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease: implications for prevention trials. Neuron, 84(3), 608-622.