The Biological/Ecological Approach
The biological approach to medical anthropology focuses on the physical, biological features of the disease in question. Medical anthropologists using the biological approach tend to focus on genetics, environment, and individual choices when attempting to treat an illness. They look at different genetic biomarkers that could cause the disease to be hereditary or cause certain populations to be more susceptible to it. They also look at the different environments and everyday life choices that of the individuals to attempt to find other biological factors that may cause the disease.
Closely related to the biological approach is the ecological approach of medical anthropology. The ecological approach focuses on plants and animals, humans, culture, natural resources, and politics and their relationships with one another. It searches for the factors affecting the balance in the patient’s ecosystem, for this imbalance may cause the different illnesses. Both the biological and ecological approaches attempt to find something in either the patient’s environment or biological features that may cause their illness.
The biological/ecological approach to studying Alzheimer’s disease is important for medical anthropologists to understand due to the fact that Western medicine tends to focus on the biological symptoms and reactions when researching causes and cures of Alzheimer’s disease. Much of the research being done on Alzheimer’s disease in the present is put towards finding the chemical and biological cause for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as finding a medicine that will improve treatment and possibly even find a way to cure and reverse the disease.
Closely related to the biological approach is the ecological approach of medical anthropology. The ecological approach focuses on plants and animals, humans, culture, natural resources, and politics and their relationships with one another. It searches for the factors affecting the balance in the patient’s ecosystem, for this imbalance may cause the different illnesses. Both the biological and ecological approaches attempt to find something in either the patient’s environment or biological features that may cause their illness.
The biological/ecological approach to studying Alzheimer’s disease is important for medical anthropologists to understand due to the fact that Western medicine tends to focus on the biological symptoms and reactions when researching causes and cures of Alzheimer’s disease. Much of the research being done on Alzheimer’s disease in the present is put towards finding the chemical and biological cause for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as finding a medicine that will improve treatment and possibly even find a way to cure and reverse the disease.
Photo Credit: Alzheimer's Association
The image above shows 3 illustrations of the human brain. The first brain in the top left hand corner is the brain of an unaffected, healthy human being. The second, the brain in the top right corner is the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient. As you can see, there are many changes that have occurred here. Alzheimer’s disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain, causing the brain to shrink dramatically and affect all of its functions. To show the size difference, this image compares the two brains in the third illustration, the one in the bottom center. As you can see, the Alzheimer’s patients brain actually fits inside of the healthy brain.
Photo Credit: Alzheimer's Association
The image you see above is another view of the massive shrinkage of the brain caused by Alzheimer’s disease. The shrinkage you see is caused by the cortex shriveling and the hippocampus shrinking severely. This is important because the cortex is responsible for the thinking, planning, and remembering functions of the brain and the hippocampus is the area that plays a key role in the formation of new memories. The large areas of the Alzheimer’s brain on the right that appear to be pits are called ventricles, and they are fluid-filled spaces within the brain that grow larger. These ventricles cause death of healthy and functioning brain cells and further impair the victim.
Douglas E. Crews from the Department of Anthropology and Preventive Medicine at The Ohio State University used his biological anthropology skills to outline where anthropological studies are headed when concerning aging research and Alzheimer’s disease. In his article Biological Anthropology and Human Aging: Some Current Directions in Aging Research, Crews discusses the implementations of anthropology on studying all aspects of human aging, for example how anthropology can assist with studying Alzheimer’s disease. One aspect of Alzheimer’s disease that anthropologists are studying currently are biological markers of the disease. A biomarker is “any physiological or molecular trait that identifies an individual as predisposed to having a particular disease or a particularly short or long lifespan.” (Crews, 409). Anthropologists have found that specific neurofibrilary tangles and senile plaques are biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. This is incredibly important to Alzheimer’s research as a whole because if medicine can detect these biomarkers earlier in a patient’s life, treatment can begin sooner. But also the earlier we can find these biomarkers the more we could potentially study a person with the disease and potentially find what causes the disease to develop.
Works Cited:
Alzheimer’s Association. “Brain Tour.” Accessed July 23, 2013. www.alz.org/braintour
Crews, Douglas E. “Biological Anthropology and Human Aging: Some Current Directions in Aging
Research.” Annual Review Anthropology, 1993. 22: 395-423. Accessed July 23, 2013.
Douglas E. Crews from the Department of Anthropology and Preventive Medicine at The Ohio State University used his biological anthropology skills to outline where anthropological studies are headed when concerning aging research and Alzheimer’s disease. In his article Biological Anthropology and Human Aging: Some Current Directions in Aging Research, Crews discusses the implementations of anthropology on studying all aspects of human aging, for example how anthropology can assist with studying Alzheimer’s disease. One aspect of Alzheimer’s disease that anthropologists are studying currently are biological markers of the disease. A biomarker is “any physiological or molecular trait that identifies an individual as predisposed to having a particular disease or a particularly short or long lifespan.” (Crews, 409). Anthropologists have found that specific neurofibrilary tangles and senile plaques are biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. This is incredibly important to Alzheimer’s research as a whole because if medicine can detect these biomarkers earlier in a patient’s life, treatment can begin sooner. But also the earlier we can find these biomarkers the more we could potentially study a person with the disease and potentially find what causes the disease to develop.
Works Cited:
Alzheimer’s Association. “Brain Tour.” Accessed July 23, 2013. www.alz.org/braintour
Crews, Douglas E. “Biological Anthropology and Human Aging: Some Current Directions in Aging
Research.” Annual Review Anthropology, 1993. 22: 395-423. Accessed July 23, 2013.