alzheimers a family disease essays

alzheimers a family disease essays Alzheimer's Disease does not kill instantly; it destroys the individual bit by bit, tearing away at their person-hood and self-identity. Most victims suffer for 9 to 15 years after onset of the illness. It is the most common type of dementia in the United States and Canada and after age 40, the risk of developing it doubles with aging every 5.1 years during adults' life. A form of dementia, the DSM-IV-R's (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) criteria for diagnosing dementia include: impairment in short- and long-term memory, at least one of the following: impairment in abstract thinking, impaired judgement, other disturbances of higher cortical functioning, personality change, significant interference with work, social activities, or relationships, in addition, symptoms do not occur exclusively during the course of delirium; and specific etiologic organic factor is evidenced or can be presumed. For an individual with this terrible disease, living with memory loss and its associa ted disabilities are very frightening. Alzheimer's includes behavioral characteristics that extend beyond its cognitive explanations. These behaviors require study because of the influence on both the patient and caregiver. Treatment often looks to drugs for relief of symptoms and to slow the course of progressive decline, rather than on assisting the individual with coping mechanisms. It has been termed a "family disease", not only because of possible genetic relation between victims, but because family members provide 80 percent or more of the care giving. Chronic and progressive mental and physical deterioration decrease the victim's capacity for independence and increase the need for support from family members caring for the victim at home. The victim attempts to make sense of a seemingly new and hostile world, and this leads to dubious and uncharacteristic changes in behavior, personality, decision-making, function, and mood. Certain ...

Foreign Policy Under Thomas Jefferson

Foreign Policy Under Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson, a Democrat-Republican, won the presidency from John Adams in the election of 1800. Highs and lows marked his foreign policy initiatives, which included the spectacularly successful Louisiana Purchase, and the horrid Embargo Act. Years in Office: first term, 1801-1805; second term, 1805-1809. Foreign Policy Ranking: first term, good; second term, disastrous Barbary War Jefferson was the first president to commit US forces to a foreign war. Barbary pirates, sailing from Tripoli (now the capital of Libya) and other places in North Africa, had long demanded tribute payments from American merchant ships plying the Mediterranean Sea. In 1801, however, they raised their demands, and Jefferson demanded an end to the practice of bribe payments. Jefferson sent US Navy ships and a contingent of Marines to Tripoli, where a brief engagement with pirates marked the United States first successful overseas venture. The conflict also helped convince Jefferson, never a supporter of large standing armies, that the United States needed a professionally trained military officer cadre. As such, he signed legislation to create the United States Military Academy at West Point. Louisiana Purchase In 1763, France lost the French and Indian War to Great Britain. Before the Treaty of Paris of 1763 stripped it permanently of all territory in North America, France ceded Louisiana (a roughly defined territory west of the Mississippi River and south of the 49th Parallel) to Spain for diplomatic safe-keeping. France planned to retrieve it from Spain in the future. The deal made Spain nervous as it feared to lose the territory, first to Great Britain, then to the United States after 1783. To prevent incursions, Spain periodically shut down the Mississippi to Anglo-American trade. President Washington, through Pinckneys Treaty in 1796, negotiated an end to Spanish interference on the river. In 1802, Napoleon, now emperor of France, made plans to reclaim Louisiana from Spain. Jefferson recognized that French reacquisition of Louisiana would negate Pinckneys Treaty, and he sent a diplomatic delegation to Paris to renegotiate it. In the meantime, a military corps that Napoleon had sent to reoccupy New Orleans had run afoul of disease and revolution in Haiti. It subsequently abandoned its mission, causing Napoleon to consider Louisiana too costly and cumbersome to maintain. Upon meeting the US delegation, Napoleons ministers offered to sell the United States all of Louisiana for $15 million. The diplomats did not have the authority to make the purchase, so they wrote to Jefferson and waited weeks for a response. Jefferson favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution; that is, he did not favor wide latitude in interpreting the document. He abruptly switched to a loose constitutional interpretation of executive authority and okayed the purchase. In doing so, he doubled the size of the United States cheaply and without warfare. The Louisiana Purchase was Jeffersons greatest diplomatic and foreign policy achievement. Embargo Act When fighting between France and England intensified, Jefferson tried to craft a foreign policy that allowed the United States to trade with both belligerents without taking sides in their war. That was impossible, given that both sides considered trade with the other a de facto act of war. While both countries violated American neutral trade rights with a series of trade restrictions, the United States considered Great Britain to be the biggest violator because of its practice of impressment- kidnapping US sailors from American ships to serve in the British navy. In 1806, Congress- now controlled by Democrat-Republicans- passed the Non-Importation Act, which prohibited the import of certain goods from the British Empire. The act did no good, and both Great Britain and France continued to deny American neutral rights. Congress and Jefferson ultimately responded with the Embargo Act in 1807. The act, believe it or not, prohibited American trade with all nations- period. Certainly, the act contained loopholes, and some foreign goods came in while smugglers got some American goods out. But the act stopped the bulk of American trade, hurting the nations economy. In fact, it wrecked the economy of New England, which relied almost exclusively on trade to support its economy. The act rested, in part, on Jeffersons inability to craft a creative foreign policy for the situation. It also pointed out American arrogance which believed the major European nations would cave in without American goods. The Embargo Act failed, and Jefferson ended it just days before he left office in March 1809. It marked the lowest point of his foreign policy attempts.