Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia due to degeneration of the brain that can impair a person's ability to think, memory, and language function. Patients with Alzheimer's, will gradually lose memory, experiencing disorientation and personality changes. This makes it difficult for patients to do daily activities. Alzheimer's symptoms were divided into 3 phases, namely:
Symptoms of Mild
• More frequently confused and forgetting newly learned information
• Disorientation: getting lost in the vicinity of a familiar
• Problematic in performing routine tasks
• Experiencing changes in personality and assessment
Symptoms of Secondary
• The difficulty in doing activities of daily living, such as eating and bathing
• Anxious, suspicious, and agitation
• Having trouble sleeping
• wander
• Difficulty recognizing family and friends.
Symptoms of Acute
• Difficult / lose the ability to speak
• Loss of appetite, weight loss
• Inability to control urination and defecation
• Highly dependent on the caregiver / nanny
In Alzheimer's disease, memory loss associated with brain damage to the nervous system. While on amnesia and delirium, occur due to psychological factors, such as physical cognitive, excessive fear or anxiety. But the physical cognitive, fear / anxiety that does not always lead to excessive amnesia.
Alzheimer's disease and amnesia are different. In Alzheimer's, decline in cognitive function or memory, is slowly deteriorating, and up to date can not be cured. While the amnesia, there are memories that can disappear in a short time and are very drastic, memories of the past or the future before he had an accident (not staged) and still curable.
Alzheimer Handling
The drugs used contain acetylcholinestrase (AChE) inhibitors such as tacrine, donepezil HCL, rivastigmine, and galantamine. These drugs work to improve the levels of brain neurotransmitters and improve the function of thought and behavior control. However, the use of these drugs should be the recommended dosage and timing of the physician or psychiatrist because it has side effects.
Without using the drug, its purpose is to regulate the behavior and cognitive symptoms of patients. The secondary objectives of this approach is to reduce the task of caregiver (nanny or nurse, usually from the patient's family).
Therapy includes: management of behavioral therapy techniques, the pleasant events schedule ( PES), music therapy , strategies / modifications to the environment , animal assisted therapy , morning bright light therapy , ECT . Through this therapy , patients with Alzheimer's becomes more familiar , and better prepared to face the disease, and more able to manage himself.
To avoid this disease , here are the tips:
1. Healthy lifestyle , such as by regular exercise, not smoke or consume alcohol , relaxation and meditation ( yoga, etc )
2 . Maintaining mental fitness or exercise the brain . How to maintain mental fitness is to stay active reading and enrich themselves with various knowledge
3 . Eating fresh fruits and vegetables . This is important because fresh fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants that serve to bind free radicals . These free radicals that damage body cells . And also encouraged to consume specific nutrients to the brain .
