Sometimes at an advanced age a person begins to forget the knowledge accumulated by him during the passage of his entire life path. The events of the past are erased from his memory, the execution of seemingly ordinary household procedures becomes a complex process. Disinterest in life and apathy are manifested.
These are all symptoms of Alzheimer's. It is nothing more than a pathology of the brain that is degenerative. What are the causes and symptoms of Alzheimer's? Can it be avoided? Let's try to understand these issues.
A bit of history
A description of the symptoms and signs of Alzheimer's disease can be found in the writings of more ancient doctors. However, the final formulation of the causes, course and stages of its manifestations belongs to the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer. In 1907, he published a detailed study of the nature of the disease from which his patient suffered. Since then, in medicine, this pathology began to bear his name.
Alois Alzheimer observed dementia in a 56-year-old woman. The patient had a memory loss, which is progressive in nature. At first, the woman was confused in the vicinity. With the development of pathology, it became difficult for her to navigate in her apartment. Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease manifested themselves in a decrease in the quality of speech, writing and reading. At the same time, it was impossible to find any clearly pronounced neurological disorders during its examination. The patient was hospitalized. After 4.5 years, she died. A post-mortem examination of her brain was performed, which revealed its atrophy, that is, a decrease in volume.
However, it is worth noting that in those days, this disease did not have such a wide spread as at the present time. Today, the list of forgetful patients is constantly expanding. So, even a dozen years ago, symptoms and signs of Alzheimer's disease (see photo below) were observed in almost 27 million people.
Now there are many more. In addition, the world reveals a tendency to increase this disease. According to medical forecasts, in the middle of the 21st century the number of patients may exceed 100 million. This is what makes scientists look for ways to treat pathology. After all, if it is not stopped, then in the near future it will hit a significant part of the inhabitants of the planet.
Pathology prevalence
Unfortunately, to date, doctors state the fact that often the symptoms and signs of Alzheimer's disease are observed in people aged 45 to 65 years. This means that the ailment has begun to "grow younger." The earliest age of a patient who has had this disease is 28 years old. However, nevertheless, pathology, as a rule, manifests itself after 40. And this despite the fact that it was initially described for the category of people over 65 years of age, in whom the disease was defined as senile dementia.
The likelihood of developing a disease differs depending on the location of the person in a given age group. So, in people from 65 to 69 years, the probability of a pathology is 0.3%. Further, this indicator increases depending on the years lived. In the group of 80-84 years, it is 3.4%. In people over 90 years of age, symptoms and signs of Alzheimer's disease appear in 5.6% of people in this category.
Pathology is the fourth in the list of deadly ailments from which humanity suffers. In the United States alone, more than 100 thousand cases of death caused by this type of dementia are recorded during the year.
It is worth noting that the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in women are more common than in men.
Causes of pathology
Symptoms and signs of Alzheimer's disease (photo of elderly patients are presented below) are manifested in people regardless of their nationality, social, economic status, as well as other characteristic similar factors.
However, it is worth noting that scientists, despite the large number of studies conducted, could not indicate the specific cause of the pathology. Today, there are more than a dozen different theories, each of which explains the origins of this disease in different ways.
So, some researchers believe that the disease is heterogeneous in origin. Sometimes it can be hereditary. However, this is not always the case. But if symptoms of Alzheimer's disease occur in a person up to the age of 65, then in most cases this is due to heredity. Moreover, family forms with an early onset of the disease were noted in only 10% of the total number of patients. A relatively recent study of dementia revealed 3 genes responsible for the development of a hereditary type of pathology. They are the causes of signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease that occurs in patients.
In addition to people whose relatives suffer from this ailment, there is a high probability of memory loss in those who have ever suffered head injuries. The risk of symptoms and signs of Alzheimer's disease is great for those who are prone to the following factors:
- Intoxication with aluminum, nitrates and zinc. This is a significant risk factor.
- Age. Alzheimer's disease is usually a senile disease.
- Floor. To a large extent, women are susceptible to the disease, since in their body hormonal restructuring, which is a stress factor, is most observed.
- Degree of intelligence. Based on statistics, as a rule, treatment of Alzheimer's disease according to symptoms and signs is carried out in people with a low level of education. Highly intelligent individuals have large interneuronal connections in the brain. For the time being, all this largely compensates for the atrophy of destroyed cells. The predisposition to the disease in such people appears a little later.
Most often, dementia is the one who suffers from diabetes, is overweight, chronic hypoxia, atherosclerosis of the main cerebral arteries, as well as some other ailments.
What's happening?
What changes do occur in a person who has symptoms and signs of Alzheimer's disease? Pathological processes in this case are noted in the brain tissues. Here one can observe the concentration of incorrectly folded proteins, namely, the tau protein and amyloid beta. In this case, plaque formation occurs in the substance of the brain and on the walls of blood vessels. These neoplasms are caused by the interconnection of small peptides. Senile plaques also appear in the brain.
The pathological process is caused by the loss of synaptic connections and neurons. This causes atrophy of some areas in the cerebral cortex. In other words, in a large number of nerve cells are destroyed, there is a lack of those substances that affect the transmission of nerve impulses. The development of symptoms of Alzheimer's occurs gradually.
The beginning of pathology
Various sources distinguish three or more stages of the course of the disease. But most often it is customary to distinguish four stages of the development of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (photo can be seen in the article). Each of them is characterized by the presence of its own characteristics, which ultimately lead to the progression of disorders in the brain.
The manifestation of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease at an early stage is called succession. Very often this stage of the disease is confused with signs of an aging organism or with a person’s reaction to a stressful situation.
It is noted that the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are detected in some patients 8 years before the diagnosis of the underlying ailment.
Initially, signs of dementia arise in the process of performing certain tasks that are everyday for a person. The most noticeable of the first symptoms of Alzheimer's is a memory disorder. It manifests itself in a person’s attempts to reproduce facts he had previously learned. It is impossible for him to learn new information for himself. These attempts also fail.
The initial symptoms of Alzheimer's are also detected in the implementation of some executive functions. These include focus and planning, as well as the ability to abstract thinking. In this case, problems with semantic memory, which is associated with the meaning of words, as well as with the relationship of concepts, are not excluded.
Often, succession is accompanied by apathy, which is the most stable neuropsychological sign, noted during the course of the entire pathology.
It is worth noting that the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in women, who most often suffer from dementia, are no different from the manifestations of this ailment in men.
Early dementia
How do the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease manifest themselves at the next stage of development (photo of the patient is presented below)? With early dementia, memory decreases at a progressive rate, which occurs along with agnosia, that is, with a violation of tactile, auditory and visual perception while maintaining consciousness and sensitivity.
A small number of patients at this stage of the disease complains not at all of a memory disorder. They are disturbed by impaired speech, movement, perception, as well as executive functions. The disease in varying degrees changes one or another aspect of human memory. To a lesser extent, it touches on memories that relate to the personal life of the patient and facts learned by him in former times. In other words, memory becomes episodic. To a small extent, it affects the disease and implicative memory of the body, in which there is an unconscious reproduction of learned actions (use of cutlery, etc.).
During the period of early dementia, a person’s vocabulary will decrease, fluency in speech will decrease, and the ability of written and oral expression of one’s thoughts will decrease. But the patient still has adequate handling of standard concepts that occur in speech communication. If a person writes, draws, changes clothes and performs other functions that require the attachment of fine motor skills, then he may already have problems with coordination and planning of movements. Sometimes it looks like awkwardness of the performed actions.
In the course of further progression of the disease, a person continues to independently perform certain tasks. However, it becomes very difficult for him to do this without assistance, at least in the form of supervision. This refers to manipulations involving the application of cognitive effort.
Moderate dementia
Upon transition to this stage of the disease, a person’s condition gradually worsens. This causes a decrease in his ability to independently perform various actions. Speech disorders become pronounced. They are caused by loss of patient access to his vocabulary. Instead of forgotten terms, a person begins to select others that are not always true. In addition, for this stage of the development of the disease characterized by a loss of reading and writing skills. Violations of coordination of movements, requiring a complex sequence of actions, are gradually progressing. This makes it impossible for a person to adequately perform most of the tasks they face in everyday life.
Of course, in this case there are also problems with memory, which, with moderate dementia, are significantly amplified. In some situations, this leads to a loss of the ability to recognize loved ones.
And if before the beginning of this period of the disease, long-term memory was not exposed to the disease, now the pathological process affects it. Deviations in the patient’s behavior are becoming more obvious and noticeable. At the same time, evening exacerbations of the disease are common, as well as its manifestation as vagrancy. A person becomes very irritable. He often manifests spontaneous aggression. Able to such a patient and cry completely suddenly.
Almost 30% of patients have symptoms of false identification, as well as delirium. Often, bedwetting develops. Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease lead to stress in relatives, which is eliminated by placing the patient in a hospital of the appropriate type, where he will be properly supervised.
Severe dementia
This stage of the disease is the last. The patient can no longer do without the help of outsiders. His language skills are reduced to using either single words or simple phrases. All this suggests that almost speech loss has occurred. Despite the loss of verbal skills, patients understand the treatment expressed to them.
Sometimes during the passage of this stage of pathology in humans, manifestations of aggression are noted. But most often apathy prevails, which is accompanied by exhaustion. As a result, such a moment comes when the patient loses the ability to carry out even the most basic actions without using outside help. His muscle mass is significantly reduced, and any movements require considerable effort. A little later, such a person ceases to eat on his own.
Life expectancy with symptoms of Alzheimer's is affected, as a rule, by external factors. It can be pneumonia or a pressure ulcer. Because of them, on average, such people live 7 years. The pathology itself does not directly lead to death.
Symptoms of a mild stage
At the initial stage, when the disease is not yet so clearly manifested, the following symptoms are characteristic of it:
- loss of short-term memory and loss of interest in the outside world;
- inability to reason about money;
- the emergence of difficulties not only in the assimilation of new information, but also in the creation and further preservation of recent memories;
- the appearance of speech problems, which is expressed in the use of words that are similar in sound but different in meaning;
- loss of opportunity for a prolonged concentration of attention, which is expressed in the absence of the ability to visit long-familiar places;
- the appearance of active and aggressive resistance to any changes and new things;
- the emergence of problems of logical thinking and organization;
- the emergence of serious difficulties in making decisions;
- the appearance of anger, irritability, uncharacteristic for a person, loss of interest in life with a constant feeling of fatigue;
- the emergence of serious difficulties in making decisions;
- forgetfulness in various areas of life (a person does not eat or, on the contrary, does not leave the table, does not pay for purchases or overpays for them, often loses things that he himself puts in unusual places for this).
In addition, the patient often begins to ask the same questions, constantly repeating them.
Symptoms of the middle stage
For this stage of the disease, the following manifestations are characteristic:
- more pronounced changes in hygiene, behavior and sleep patterns;
- confusion in personalities when a patient perceives a loved one as a stranger;
- the occurrence of urgent security problems when the patient begins to wander, can easily be poisoned, etc.
- loss of ability to recognize people and things;
- repetition by a person of the same stories, words and movements;
- loss of ability to organize their thoughts when a person ceases to trace a logical chain in various explanations;
- the lack of the ability to formulate the correct answer even with repeated reading of the material;
- manifestation of inappropriate behavior in the form of excessive excitement, curses and threats;
- the occurrence of inaccuracy in the use of things;
- loss of orientation in time, manifested in the form of night fees for work, etc .;
- the occurrence of a sensation of a repetition of life events or that the patient is pursued by a mirror image;
- the use of clothing not appropriate for the weather;
- the need for help when going to the shower or toilet.
Severe Symptoms
In the later stages of the development of the disease, a person completely ceases to perceive the environment and family, despite the fact that any of his actions require outside help. The patient becomes silent or, conversely, too talkative, but it is quite difficult to understand. Such a patient ceases to control the processes of bowel movement. As the disease progresses, he loses weight, and his skin, devoid of nutrients, begins to dry and crack. Often these people fall, suffer from infectious diseases. Most of the time the patient is in bed.
Chance of recovery
Is it possible to treat pathology when symptoms of Alzheimer's are detected? Unfortunately, today it is impossible to completely relieve a person of its signs. Scientists around the world are conducting active research in this area, trying to find tools that eliminate this pathology. For example, today the mechanism of the development of the disease is finally clarified. It was determined that the pathological phenomenon is controlled by ions of such an element as zinc. It is possible that this fact will lead to the development of drugs that contribute to the recovery of patients.
At the moment, there are several modern methods that allow, regardless of the cause of Alzheimer's disease, the treatment of symptoms to alleviate the human condition. The effectiveness of the therapy in most cases depends on the stage at which the pathology was diagnosed. The sooner it is discovered, the more effective the measures will be.
Drug therapy
After determining the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, drug treatment can be prescribed as effective as possible.
The correct prescription of medicines is possible with an accurate understanding of those biochemical processes and morphological changes that contribute to the onset of the disease.
Due to the fact that with Alzheimer's disease, the implementation of interneuronal connections is lost due to the passage of a nerve impulse, which, in turn, depends on the acetylcholine mediator, drugs are prescribed to the patient that increase the level of this element. This group of drugs includes cholinesterase inhibitors. To date, the most used are such drugs from this group as Rivastigmine, as well as its analogues Razadin and Arisept.
These medications exhibit anticholinesterase activity, and also prevent the formation of amyloid plaques.
In the mild and moderate stages of the pathology, the use of such drugs improves memory, increases human activity in everyday life, and also slows the progression of the disease for a period of 6 to 12 months.
Studies on the causes of Alzheimer's disease have confirmed the fact that damage to neurons contributes to the excess in the tissues of the cerebral cortex of a mediator such as glutamate. In order to reduce the activity of this element, the patient is prescribed the drug "Akatinol Memantine." This medicine has a small list of side effects, and it has a positive effect on concentration, memory, as well as on the preservation of practical skills in a person.
Very often, doctors use combinations of cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine when determining the course of therapy.
Along with an attempt to suspend interneuronal connections, mental symptoms are treated. At the stage of manifestation of dementia in its moderate and severe form, a person has increased excitability. To eliminate it, tranquilizers, anticonvulsants, as well as antipsychotics are used. However, it is worth considering that these groups of medicines have a large number of side effects. That is why such drugs are selected individually by the attending physician for their patients.
Among the most modern means, the action of which is aimed at reducing the degree of excitement, are the following: “Clozelin” and “Olanzapine”, “Quetialin” and “Risperidone”. With the manifestation of acute mental states, expressed by delirium, hallucinations and psychomotor agitation, the patient is prescribed the time-tested "Haloperidol".
A unique drug in the treatment of Alzheimer's is considered "Sonapaks". It combines the properties of a tranquilizer, antidepressant and antipsychotic. The medicine helps in the fight against the manic state, and also perfectly regulates the sleep regimen, eliminating the restless feeling, accompanied by aimless wandering. In addition, a universal drug treats depression, and also helps eliminate anxiety and fear.
Phenibut drug has similar qualities. It helps to improve cerebral circulation, the transmission of nerve impulses, as well as metabolic processes occurring in the tissues of the brain. The use of the drug significantly reduces the patient’s anxiety, suppresses his fear, improves memory, sleep, increases the reaction rate, as well as mental and physical performance.
To alleviate the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, as with other types of dementia, the drugs Actovegin and Cerebrolysin are used. These medications protect brain cells from destructive factors, improving metabolism and blood circulation in its tissues. Such an action helps to improve memory, as well as to facilitate the patient’s life, which eliminates his dependence on others.
Psychosocial therapy
Such treatment complements the medication. Psychosocial therapy allows a person to adapt to it already in the early stages of the course of the disease. In the process of such therapy, work is carried out with memories, intellectual tasks are proposed for fulfillment. All this stimulates brain activity and has a positive effect on the patient. All these activities are carried out both individually and in groups.
Phytotherapy
This direction can be a good addition to taking medication. At the stage of mild dementia, it is recommended to use drugs based on the leaves of ginkgo biloba. Their use helps to improve memory, increase concentration, and also affects learning. The action of such funds is based on improving blood circulation in the brain tissue due to an increase in the level of acetylcholine and inhibition of the formation of platelets. One of these drugs is called Ginkgo-Biloba, and the second is Memoplant.
Memory and plants from the family of buttercup and barberry, as well as the extract of hawthorn (but not alcohol), improve memory. The activity of the hypothalamus is increased by dandelion, calamus, elecampane, chicory and wormwood.
Of the sedatives, it is recommended to use mint, valerian, heather and St. John's wort.
But phytotherapy should not be used instead of medication. In addition, in order not to harm your body, it is recommended that you first consult with your doctor.
Homeopathy
This direction is also not worth ignoring. However, it is not recommended to use it instead of drug therapy.
Homeopathic remedies should be prescribed only by a doctor who specializes in this area. As a rule, with Alzheimer's disease, as well as with other varieties of dementia, they use “Barite carbonic”, “Baltizia”, “Shanzhong guben huanshao wan”.
How to avoid pathology?
What is needed to prevent Alzheimer's? The treatment of symptoms of dementia, as already mentioned, does not completely eliminate the problem. Therefore, it is so important to take measures to prevent the development of the disease.
You can prevent the occurrence of pathology as follows:
- Being more in motion. For this, it is recommended, for example, to walk to work, run in the mornings, go Nordic walking, ride a bike and swim.
- By training not only the body, but also the mind. You can take part in intellectual games, learn foreign languages, plan financial matters, solve crosswords, play with grandchildren and children, collect Lego, gain new skills, and master the capabilities of the Internet and a computer.
- By organizing proper nutrition with the inclusion in the daily diet of foods that are beneficial for metabolism and the brain. At the same time, it is worth excluding fast food, fatty and carbohydrate-rich foods from the menu. Familiarity with the Mediterranean diet is recommended. Scientists believe that it helps reduce the risk of dementia by 40%.
- Refusing bad habits.
- Avoiding work in hazardous industries, as well as participation in traumatic sports.
- By controlling the level of glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure, timely eliminating endocrine and vascular pathologies.
- Tempering and not neglecting preventive vaccinations to prevent infectious ailments.
What else could Alzheimer's disease prevention consist of? With the symptoms of this pathology, one of the family members should be consulted by a geneticist and examined.