Sometimes in life, you can see such elderly people who look normal from the outside, but their intelligence declines like a child. These old people were in good health, but gradually they can’t remember the names of their friends and relatives, don’t know their family members, forget what they told him/her soon, forget what they said before and after, lose everything, can’t find their way home, can’t tell the time, can’t do accounting, can’t do housework, change their temperament, become stubborn, suspicious, and even have hallucinations …. The elderly have not had trauma, stroke, poisoning, major infectious diseases, etc. People used to think that “this is old and confused, cognitive decline is normal when people are old” and rarely take the elderly to the hospital. In fact, these manifestations are not a normal phenomenon of the elderly, but a disease called Alzheimer’s disease.
The recognition of these manifestations as a disease entity is attributed to the German physician Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915), who dissected the brain of an elderly woman with similar symptoms and found that her brain was different from that of a normal elderly person: the brain was atrophied, the brain sulcus became deeper, the brain gyrus became shallower, the brain weight decreased, amyloid plaques were deposited in the brain tissue, nerve fibers were tangled, and Nerve cells were lost. Later, in order to commemorate his discovery, people named such a manifestation of the disease as Alzheimer’s disease, which is customarily called Alzheimer’s disease in China. In fact, the early manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease are very mild, and can be a very mild degree of memory loss, which is difficult to distinguish from normal age-related memory loss; and dementia in the elderly is not necessarily Alzheimer’s disease.
World Alzheimer’s Day, also known as World Alzheimer’s Awareness Day in China, is celebrated on September 21 every year. Every year, many countries and regions around the world hold this day to make the whole society understand that the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease is very important and should be given enough attention. The theme of this year’s campaign is “Dementia . It’s time for action.) Why is it important to call the public to action against dementia? What is its social significance?
As the world population ages, the percentage of elderly people in the total population of each country is increasing; in 1953, China’s total population was about 500 million, with 4% of the population over 65 years old; in 2005, the total population was 1.3 billion, with 7% of the population over 65 years old; experts predict that by 2045, the total population will reach 1.5 billion, with up to 20% of the population over 65 years old. Dementia is a common disease in the elderly population, a clinical syndrome with cognitive impairment as the main manifestation, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly.
There are currently 5 million people with dementia in China, accounting for more than a quarter of the total number of cases in the world, with an average of 300,000 new cases each year. The prevalence of dementia in China has been increasing significantly with age: 8.26% over the age of 75, and up to 11.4% over the age of 80. Alzheimer’s disease is a serious intellectual disability that takes years or even decades to develop from mild memory and cognitive impairment to a final vegetative state, and its combination of physical, mental, neurological and social characteristics brings great suffering to patients and their families. However, the current situation in China is “low awareness rate, low diagnosis rate, and low treatment rate”, and most of the patients do not seek treatment in time or do not go to the hospital at all, resulting in low quality of life.
The early signs of Alzheimer’s disease are impaired near memory, inability to remember things that have just happened or words that have just been said, as if they had not happened, forgetting the names of familiar people, and relatively clear memories of things that have been done for a long time. As the disease progresses, it manifests as a decrease in the ability to acquire new knowledge, proficiency and social skills. Severe cases have poor temporal and spatial orientation and often get lost, even in their own homes. Some may also develop personality disorders and psychiatric symptoms, hallucinations, delusions, and delusions. Some have aphasia, loss of use, loss of recognition, inability to calculate, etc. Eventually, they may be muted and bedridden.
Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is mainly based on medical history, with ancillary tests (such as brain CT or MRI, EEG, hearing and vision tests, thyroid function tests, vitamin B12, homocysteine, spirochete tests, etc.), mainly to exclude other diseases that can cause memory loss or dementia, such as vascular dementia (caused by stroke), hypoparathyroidism, chronic epidural hematoma, normal intracranial pressure hydrocephalus, paralytic dementia, brain tumors, etc. The medical history should also exclude depression, alcoholism, sleep disorders, and side effects of medications. Some diseases can be cured once the diagnosis is confirmed in time.
Early treatment of Alzheimer’s disease is effective, and the clinically used drugs Donepezil, Esnen, Haberin, and Olanzapine have clear efficacy in reducing symptoms; Meperidine is helpful in relieving cognitive function and mental symptoms in patients with advanced disease.
Risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease have been found to include hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hyperhomocysteinemia, poor diet, smoking, persistent mental stress, depression, head trauma, obesity, and a less social lifestyle.
To prevent memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease, it is recommended to pay attention to the following ten points in life work.
1.Control blood pressure.
2.Lower cholesterol.
3.Check homocysteine level, and supplement vitamin B12 if necessary.
4.Eat more vegetables and fruits, and drink a small amount of red wine.
5, protect the brain from trauma.
6.Check your eyesight and hearing, so that your ears and eyesight are clear and your senses are sharp.
7.Actively participate in physical exercise.
8.Exercise the brain
9.Actively participate in social activities.
10.Reduce depression and stress, keep happy and joyful.
As the experts say: advocate the prevention of dementia begins at the beginning of life and continues through every stage of life.