Identify A Health Issue And Provide Innovative Solutions

Mei Wu
Dr. Karlin
A4 Assignment
December 1, 2017
Health Issue and Innovative Solutions
Sitting in a wheelchair and dazing through the day was the typical lifestyle for Henry for the past ten years. The documentary Alive Inside reveals the living condition for Alzheimer’s patients in one of the nursing homes. A cold sandwich with milk would be served to him for lunch. Henry is one of the nursing home residents that has dementia, and need total assistance for all his activities. When his nurse tried to get him to talk and asked him to tell her his full name, he would not bother to give a response. He could not even recognize his daughter when she comes to see him (Palicame, “Alive Inside”). Without sufficient interactions with the world or any excitement for life, Henry’s life at this nursing home was miserable and depressing. However, other than care and food that would keep Henry’s physical body stay alive, the nursing home did not seem to provide special treatments that would better Henry’s Alzheimer symptoms. With the loss of memory, Henry was losing his identity and the ability to make judgments.
Like Henry, approximately 60% of the nursing home residents had Alzheimer’s disease in the United States, and the condition may become worse with the current condition for some of the nursing becoming less desirable than they are supposed to be every day thus losing their connection to life and the outside. However, regardless of the drop in quality of services offered by nursing homes, Alzheimer’s patients still need them because of the extensive care and supervision that they need on a continuous basis especially when their spouses or children are unable to spend enough time and energy to provide such care. The US Census Bureau predicted that there would be 71 million people aged 65 years old and older when all the baby boomers are at least 65 years old in 2030. One in nine people aged 65 and older, which is approximately 11%, has developed the Alzheimer’s disease. Thus, it is imperative to call for advancement in effective prevention and treatment modalities in nursing homes in the next decades so that the generation that is growing older with Alzheimer’s disease can enjoy a higher quality of life in nursing homes.
Alzheimer’s is medically challenging to diagnose or develop medication. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the main contributing cause for this is dementia feature in the brain: neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques. Alzheimer’s association further introduce that neurofibrillary tangles consist of protein tangles located within the cytoplasm. While amyloid plaques are regions comprising of scar tissue in the inflicted an individual’s brain. Amyloid plaques are a combination of amyloid protein and degenerating neurons according to Alzheimer’s Association. These complicated symptoms in the brain. However, they have made, and continue to make, scientific advances relative to understanding the etiology and progression of this debilitating disease. These advances have resulted in a breadth of possible treatment and prevention options that are currently undergoing scientific and experimental investigation, with the hope that clinical trials will commence in the future for some of these promising modalities.
The documentary Alive Inside records one potential effective treatment for dementia that could be easily implemented in nursing homes. In the video Oliver Sacks, the author of the book Neurologista, critiques that “Music has the ability to activate more parts of the brain than any other stimulus. When we are young, music records itself in our motions and emotions; and luckily these are the last parts of our brain touched by,” (Palicame, “Alive Inside”). Human’s brain even dementia patients brain can recognize music that has been heard for a long time ago; this special feature of the human brain for music allows dementia patients to activate memories from the past.
Henry was one of the examples that highlighted the transforming effects of the “music treatment” introduced by a social worker. Dr. Dan Cohen, an executive director of the documentary advocates for the use of music therapy in dementia treatment. Henry opened up his eyes and started to sing along with the music on the iPod. He started recalling the exciting memory of his past. With the cheerful expression and strong emotions for music, Henry is actually alive inside! Everyone in the room can feel the energy and life that has come back to Henry. Henry’s reaction to music was also fascinating to Dan Cohen and Henry’s nurse. Cohen said that “We connected with Henry. We connected with Henry’s...Self!” (Palicame, “Alive Inside”). “Like what Cohen said, the music serves as an effective stimulus that helped Henry connect with his memories. With all the vibrant memories, he was getting his identity back as well. Similar effects have been witnessed with other nursing home residents for the music treatment introduced by Cohen. Alzheimer’s patients are so isolated in the nursing home, they are struggling with their own thoughts. However, when an iPod plays music to them, they are not struggling but immersed in the music and the vibrant memories it brings about.
An iPod can cost less than a hundred dollar and also be shared by the different nursing home residents. If bringing in music treatment could be one potential measure to ease the emotional burden and awaken the memories for people with Alzheimer’s diseases at such a low cost, music, and should also be implemented into the daily life of patients in the nursing homes (Palicame, “Alive Inside”). Though there is no scientific proof that music can untangle neurofibrillary tissue or prevent the degradation of neurons, we see hopes in the nanopharmaceutical methods for treating and easing the burden of Alzheimer’s patients.
While the music does provide entertainment and comfort to Alzheimer’s patients, not all music will activate memories for Alzheimer’s patients. Only specific music that the Alzheimer’s ...