Alzheimer's disease is often in a conversation it is not quite rightly called senile senility - is just one of the varieties of senile, or senile psychosis.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, developing in the elderly and senile. The first symptoms may appear after 40 years, and after 70 years of age the incidence of the disease reaches 30%.
More often, age-related dementia affects women - perhaps the reason lies in the longer life of women: many men simply do not live to see Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's disease in the brain is the deposition of protein in the form of "senile plaques" and the formation of so-called neurofibrillary glomeruli, consisting of damaged neurons, both of which lead to the destruction of the neural pathways of the brain.
While it is still not clear what exactly causes these changes, but in recent years, scientists have been able to identify special genes responsible for the predisposition of a person to Alzheimer's disease.
And here that is interesting: the disease is more often observed in people with little education, with unskilled occupations. A person with high intelligence is less likely to encounter manifestations of this disease, for the reason that he has more connections between nerve cells. So, with the death of some cells, the lost functions can be transferred to others that were not previously involved.
What's happening?
The disease begins with increasing memory impairment. The early stage can go unnoticed for others, because a person, noting the first symptoms of the disease, tries in every possible way to hide them. With the growing loss of memories there is a feeling of confusion, misunderstanding, bewilderment. Gradually, a person ceases to navigate in time and place, from his memory, accumulated knowledge, experience, skills drop out, and first events that are close in time, and then more distant ones, are forgotten. The recognition of the form, color, faces, sense of orientation in space is violated. This can affect, for example, the randomness and asymmetry of handwriting: letters accumulate in the center or in the corners of the page, vertically. The speech becomes more and more incomprehensible.
When the disease begins to progress, every opportunity should be used to maintain the patient's ability to self-service, reduce his isolation from others, and try to prevent the development of depression. For example, new, better-matched glasses, a better hearing aid, an easy-to-use radio receiver, books with pictures and large letters can help.
Factors that enhance the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include:
For diagnostics of this disease, the presence of the following signs is necessary: the inconspicuous onset of the disease, its steadily progressing course, and the exclusion of all other causes of dementia. For this purpose, special questionnaires for determining Alzheimer's disease have been developed.
To clarify the diagnosis, it is also necessary to undergo electrocardiography, electroencephalography, computed tomography, thyroid function research.
If your elderly relative has symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's, hurry to conduct his examination with a neurologist.
Special drugs that cure Alzheimer's disease do not exist yet. However, there are medicines that facilitate the manifestations of the disease and significantly inhibit its development.
