Alzheimer Disease

Alzheimer's is not a contagious disease, but a collection of symptoms due to brain cell deaths at about the same time, so the brain appears to shrivel and shrink. Alzheimer's is identical as a disease that affects the elderly. The risk of developing Alzheimer's increases with age. Generally a person can be exposed to Alzheimer's from the age of 60 years.

Initial symptoms Alzheimer's is easy to forget for things that are often done and new things, especially disorientation problems of time and difficulties in complex cognitive functions such as mathematics or organizational activities. The first time to determine the presence of dementia / senility need to be confirmed by a neuropsychological test. Symptoms include memory and cognitive impairment. Severe Alzheimer's has a history of progressive loss of memory to interfere with daily activities, disorienting places and people (eg age), as well as time. And have a problem in self care (eg forgot to change clothes). Changes in behavior such as depression, paranoia, or aggressive.

People with a family history of Alzheimer's have a risk of developing Alzheimer's and the risk is increased if both parents suffer from Alzheimer's. People with Down syndrome also have a risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's risk factors include serious head trauma, aging, postmenopause, estrogen deficiency, family history with ApoE positive genotypes, elevated serum homocysteine, etc. Meanwhile, factors that may decrease the likelihood of this disease are Estrogen Replacement Therapy early in the menopause, anti-inflammatory drug (including nonsteroid agent), antioxidant, and statin use.


Until now, Alzheimer's can not be cured completely, but there are some drugs that can reduce symptoms and inhibit the development of this disease, including levodopa, antidepressant drugs, anticemas, antipsychotics, and others.

Understanding
Alzheimer's disease is a condition in which some of the cells in the brain are not functioning. As a result the ability of the brain decreased dramatically.

In the early phase, people with Alzheimer's usually often lose short-term memory. For example, forgot or can not remember the events that just happened. In addition, the sufferer also often forgets the name of the place or objects that are often used.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease will experience a severe decline in intellectual function. This will cause disruption to the daily activities and social life of patients.

Alzheimer's disease occurs chronically and can not heal normally. Until now, there is no drug that can cure people with Alzheimer's disease 100%.

The risk of Alzheimer's disease will increase with age. In general, this disease appears over the age of 65 years and more often attacks the women.

Complications

Some of the complications that can appear in people with Alzheimer's disease are:

Depression
Reluctant to perform normal activities
Changes in attitude and perliaku
Changes in sleep patterns
Difficult to communicate
Withdraw from family and environment
Diagnosis
Determination of diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, can be done through interviews and some examination. The doctor will conduct an examination to assess the ability to remember, changes in attitude, the degree of memory disturbances that occur, to the cause of the complaint.

To assess the mental health of a sufferer, it may be checked by MMSE (Mini Mental State Examination). Additional possible checks such as blood examination, MRI examination, CT-scan.

Symptoms
Early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include:

Easy to forget, even for things that are often done or new things done.
Sufferers often experience disorientation, especially for time.
Difficulties in complex cognitive functions, such as math or organizational activity.
If this condition continues, several complaints that may arise are:

Confusion and disorientation
Changes in attitude for example become more aggressive or become more suspicious
Hallucinations or delusions
Problems in talking
Difficult to do action without any help
Treatment
Therapy for Alzheimer's disease concerns several aspects, such as:

Use of drugs. The drug classes commonly used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease are cholinesterase inhibitors (eg Donepezil), Memantine, antidepressants, to anti-anxiety medications and insomnia.

Environmental therapy In this case concerning how to make people with Alzheimer's feel more comfortable. For example by putting important things in life (wallet, key) in the same place every day. Also make sure Alzheimer's patients carry mobile phones wherever they travel.

Regular medical examination.

Lifestyle changes. Perform regular exercise and increase the daily nutrition intake of patients. Some vitamins that can help Alzheimer's disease are Omega-3, curcumin, ginkgo, and vitamin E.
Prevention


Some things you can do to prevent Alzheimers disease are:

Quit smoking
Avoid alcohol consumption in large quantities
Consumption of high nutritious foods (containing vegetables and fruit)
Exercise at least 150 minutes a week
Perform routine checks to the doctor
Activate your brain by reading, writing, learning language, playing a musical instrument, playing tennis, swimming and walking.
Cause
Until now there is no known exact cause of Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, there are several risk factors for the emergence of this disease, namely:

Increased age
Family history of Alzheimer's
History of head injury
Lifestyle-related risk factors for cardiovascular disease

Facts About Alzheimer's

The general presumption that senility is commonplace in old age, tends to make people forget to understand the prevention efforts. In fact, early detection is important for people with dementia in order not to lose its productivity.

In fact, every three seconds a person in the world develops dementia. Dementia is actually a term for a set of symptoms where there is a decrease in memory, thinking patterns and the ability to logic, as well as the ability to interact socially. People know dementia as senile. The causes are very diverse, some can be cured and some are not. However, most cases are caused by Alzheimer's disease, tends to worsen over time.

The Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) report states that by 2015, there are 46.8 million people with dementia. This number will increase to double every 20 years.