NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.

Spirituality Reflective Writing

Alzheimer’sdisease (AD) is a fascinating disease. Its progressive and chronic nature causes a variety of brain illnesses concerned with diminished cognitive skills and memory loss to include the ability to perform every day activities, behavior, thinking and memory. It is fascinating because it is related to the brain. Research studies indicate that heart diseases, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, increase the risk of getting AD. By slowing down the brain’s blood supply, brain activity would decrease thereby resulting in AD symptoms. There is a distance between the brain and heart, and yet the two are linked enough that problems in one organ (heart) causes problems in another organ (brain)(Ali, 2015).NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.

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1. What aspects of normal anatomy is interesting to you and why?

The biological processes that occur in the brain are interesting. A normal healthy brain contains tens of billions of neurons that are responsible for processing and transmitting information via chemical and electrical signals. In normal aging as an individual reaches old age, the brain would progressively shrink but only a small number of neurons would lose their function. However, among persons with AD, the damage to the neurons is more widespread as more of them die, lose connections and stop functioning. This ends up disrupting the processes that are vital to the neurons and interrupts their networks to include repair, metabolism and communication(Ali, 2015).NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.

2. What factors have caused the damage to the normal anatomy and physiology?

The occurrence of AD begins with the destruction of abnormally large number of neurons so that their connections are interrupted. The destruction is considered abnormal sincea normal aging process is accompanied by some neurons being destroyed and yet this occurs in small amounts. As more neurons are destroyed and connections interrupted, the AD patient started to lose his/her memory, to include the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. As more neurons are destroyed, the cerebral cortex that is responsible for social behavior, reasoning and language also become affected. Eventually more neurons are destroyed and brain areas damaged so that the AD patient reports gradual lose in the ability to function and live independently. Ultimately, as more areas of the brain are damaged and it shrinks, brain atrophy results so that the AD becomes fatal(Ali, 2015).NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.

3. How can we restore the healing process?

There is no known cure for AD. However, there are some medication andmulti-sensory activities that can slow done the process of neurons being destroyed. These medication and activities are targeted at stimulating the senses to improve mood and behavior while decreasing agitation. The activities include listening to music, singing and engaging in art activities to fight boredom while triggering past memories so that the neurons at risk of being destroyed remain active. The activities are fun and functional while being targeted at invigorating, validating actions and inspiring actions since they increase motor abilities, physical movement, socialization, and communication (Ali, 2015).NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.

4. What is the role of prayer, influence of religion and culture relating to this disease process?

Prayer can play an important role in the disease process. Prayer offers hope for relief and healing for the patient. In fact, prayer is considered as an ‘alternative and complementary medicine’ that works towards improving health. Besides that, prayer is a basic dimension of theistic religion and culture that helps individuals come to terms with the fragility of life and possibility of death in which case prayer helps to set everything to rights with the world while preparing for life after death. In addition, prayer acts as an essential ingredient of personal spirituality as a vital concern to an ordinary person (Jors et al., 2015). Still, it is important to note that there are different types of prayers (lamentation, God-centered prayer, assurance-centered prayer and disease-centered prayer) that serve different functions. Lamentation acts as an expression of grief, God-centered prayer helps to connect with God to provide healing, and assurance-centered prayer helps to accept the disease (Jors et al., 2015).NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.

5. Conclusion

One must accept that AD is a health care concern owing to its irreversible nature. The disease progression involves the brains neurons being destroyed at a faster rate than would be seen in a normal aging process. AD is interesting because of how it links the brain and heart whereby the heart failing to function as intended causes a reduction in blood flow to the brain so that brain cells die and its capacity reduces. AD healing occurs through medication and multi-sensory activities that stimulate the brain thereby reducing the rate at which it degenerates. Prayer plays a role in the AD disease process as it can take the form of lamentation, God-centered prayer, assurance-centered prayer and disease-centered prayer thus fulfilling a religious and cultural function.NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.

References

Ali, N. (2015). Understanding Alzheimer’s: An Introduction for Patients and Caregivers. Rowman& Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Jors, K., Büssing, A., Hvidt, N. C., & Baumann, K. (2015). Personal Prayer in Patients Dealing with Chronic Illness: A Review of the Research Literature. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2015, Article ID 927973. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/927973

NURS-323:Pathophysiology Essay.