What Is Alice Howland Essay

In this book, Alice Howland, a fifty year old woman, is working at Harvard University as a cognitive psychology professor, going to meetings and seminars, and traveling to different countries, before her life was completely changed. In the beginning she was forgetting things such as where her phone was, what words to use, and when to get on a plane. Being concerned, Alice visits her doctor, who then tests her memory, and asks Alice to get some tests done in case it is something worse. After the tests come back normal, Alice senses that her doctor thinks that it is something else, and goes to see a neurologist. Too shocked after the neurologist diagnosis her with early-onset Alzheimer 's disease, Alice eventually tells her husband and children. Meanwhile she forgets to teach a class, being introduced to people, and forgets if she has already repeated something. Again going to her neurologist, Alice decides to participate in the Amylix drug trial. While at their summer home, Alice gets lost, can 't identify certain objects, and has to be watched by her daughter. When they get back to Cambridge, Alice talks to one of her colleagues about how her students rated her. When Alice tells him that she was diagnosed with Alzheimer 's disease, she notices that he doesn 't want her working anymore, and decides to give up her career at Harvard. Having nothing to do but take her medications, Alice wonders if there are any support groups for people with Alzheimer 's, and calls a social worker from the hospital she has been attending. She discovers that

This book relates to our science class unit on the human body. It relates to that unit because the book is mostly about Alzheimer 's disease, and that disease affects the brain. In the nervous system there are nerves, your five senses, and the brain. In Alzheimer 's disease the neurons or nerve cells die, causing people with the disease to have trouble remembering things, and recognizing objects or people