Alzheimer Disease
You are walking down the lane towards your home and what if you can’t remember your own home address. Heard of the instance and you’re frightened, just imagine how do people manage who actually suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Let’s have some brief idea about it, Alzheimer is a kind of dementia that causes problems with thinking, behavior and memory. Symptoms with time get worse even intervene daily tasks if not taken care of. Alzheimer’s is characterized by the accumulation of two types of protein in the brain: plaques (amyloid-beta) and tangles (tau). It destroys brain cells, which eventually takes people’s lives. Worldwide, nearly 44 million people have it, but only1-in-4 people are diagnosed.
Causes
Experts haven’t come up with any conclusion about the cause of Alzheimer. Researches are in progress, Dr. Gad Marshall, associate medical director of clinical trials at the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital claims, “For 1% of all cases, there are three genes that determine definitively whether or not you will have Alzheimer’s, and all three relate to amyloid-beta production, which in these cases is likely the cause of Alzheimer’s.”
Factors that may increase the risk for developing it include Genetics, Cholinergic hypothesis, Amyloid hypothesis, Tau hypothesis and Other hypotheses, increasing age, a family history of the condition, previous severe head injuries, lifestyle factors and conditions associated with cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Stanley Prusiner, an American neuroscientist from the University of California at San Francisco, earned a Nobel Prize in 1997 for discovering all transmissible spongiform encephalopathy TSEs are caused by prions. Prions are a deadly and unstoppable form of protein that migrates, mutates, multiplies and kills with unparalleled efficiency.
Improve your lifestyle
Healthy habits may help ward off Alzheimer’s. Consider the following steps.
Exercise. Doctors recommend physical as well mental exercise 30 to 60 minutes three to four days per week as it helps prevent the development of Alzheimer’s or slow the progression in people who have symptoms.
Eat a Mediterranean diet. The patient suffering with Alzheimer should be provided a balanced diet like whole grains, low-fat dairy products, vegetables, fruits and lean protein foods. Fat is an essential part of the diet but not all fats are good, limit high saturated fat and cholesterol that is bad for heart health. Refined sugar is Big NO, also high sodium and salt content should be lessened.
Get enough sleep. Stress is one of the reasons for restless sleep. First don’t take stress so easily take proper 8 hours sleep daily and you keep awayAlzheimer.
Do Brain Storming. Cognitively stimulating activities may be helpful in preventing Alzheimer’s and great social contact too but there is only information, proof for their benefit is still not there.
Is knowing the Symptoms help?
Finland is the country suffers most from Alzheimer and dementia. On 8 May 2012, Finland launched a national dementia plan called the “National Memory Programme 2012-2020”.
Sometimes studying about disease gives you insecurity but study up on something is good for your knowledge. Here are symptoms you should not avoid:
Early
In the early stage, patients face difficulties with language, perception, executive functions or execution of movements. Alzheimer doesn’t destroy all memory capacities equally. Old memories, facts learned and implicit memory are less affected. Language problems and decreased word fluency is generally observed.
Moderate
Difficulties in daily activities, progressive loss in reading and writing skills, complex motor sequences are less coordinated with time. Prevalence of behavioural and neuropsychiatric changes. Common manifestations include irritability, urinary incontinence and labile affect which leads to sudden crying or outburst of aggression or opposition to caregiving.
Advanced
At the final stage, the patient’s dependency on caregivers exceeds as their language just reduces to simple phrase or one word, eventually total loss of speech. Symptoms include deterioration of mobility, extreme apathy and exhaustion, not be able to perform even the simplest tasks independently, gets bedridden and unable to feed themselves.
“If you have a decline in your memory or thinking that affects your ability to perform any of your daily routines, ask your doctor for a screening to evaluate you for Alzheimer’s and related conditions,” says Dr. Gad Marshall.
