An Informative Guide to Alzheimer's Disease A dedication to my dearest grandmother

Abstract

To fulfill the requirement for the Purchase College senior capstone project, I wrote a creative praxis stage play along with my research. My senior capstone is an informative guide regarding Alzheimer’s Disease and my personal experiences. The stage play portion is a rendition of real life experiences of my grandmother living with Alzheimer’s. When I decided to write about this disease, I had noticed that there weren’t any senior projects previously written on this matter. My grandmother was my muse for my senior project, and you will notice personal reflections of our lives incorporated throughout. Many may know of this disease as just memory loss, but I seek to show that it is more complex. My research was based from my personal experience witnessing the disease with my grandmother, along with scholarly peer reviewed articles. There are many that aren’t completely aware of the stages, full effects of Alzheimer’s, history or where it originally stems from. Through my creative script, I strive to enable the reader to become a part of the experience, of which involves an Alzheimer’s patient; my grandmother. With my research portion, my objective is to inform scholars of the history, risk factors, the seven stages and the health benefits that have a high probability of preventing the disease. Though we are unable to find a cure for the disease today, I hope that the information I’ve provided will give others insight, broader perspective, and motivate others to get involved, in the search to find a cure. Keywords: Alois Alzheimer, Early-Onset, Late-Onset, Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyloid Plaques, Neurofibrillary Tangles, Neurons, Stages, Health Benefits.