Dementia is a disorder of brain function that prevents a person from managing his or her own daily life. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease (AD), which generally begins with impairments in thinking, memory, and language functions. To date, the cause of Alzheimer’s disease remains unknown and untreatable. The age of onset of Alzheimer’s disease is usually around 60 years old, with the incidence increasing with age. about 5% of people in the 65-74 age group develop Alzheimer’s disease; by the age of 85 or older, it is likely that about 50% of people will have the disease. How do you get Alzheimer’s disease? After more than 100 years of research and observation, the cause of Alzheimer’s disease remains undetermined. There is a tendency to believe that the cause of Alzheimer’s disease is the result of multiple factors. First, as the name implies, age is an obvious factor, and the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease doubles for every 5 years of age over 65. Second, genetic factors. There is an early-onset “Alzheimer’s disease” that runs in families, with an age of onset of 30-60 years. Most people with Alzheimer’s disease are late-onset and there is no clear familial predisposition. However, the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene has been found to be the suspected causative gene for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Apolipoprotein E is the protein that transports cholesterol in the blood and is present in everyone. About 15% of people with the ApoE gene type have a high risk of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. There may be other genes that are associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease that are still being studied. What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease? Most Alzheimer’s disease progresses slowly. In the early stages, there is usually only mild forgetfulness, which is often thought of as poor memory in older people. Of course most people with poor memory do not have Alzheimer’s disease. In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, patients often have trouble remembering recent events and cannot recall the names of acquaintances. As the disease progresses, patients do not know how to do simple things such as brush their teeth and comb their hair. The head is also unclear and cannot recognize acquaintances and familiar places. The patient begins to have difficulty with language, comprehension, reading and writing. Then, the patient becomes anxious, aggressive, and runs away from home. Eventually, Alzheimer’s patients lose the ability to care for themselves completely. How is Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed? An early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease will give the patient the opportunity to treat the disease and make plans for the future while the patient is still conscious. As mentioned earlier, Dr. Alzheimer’s 100-year-old diagnostic criteria have been used to date, which requires specific pathological changes to be seen on a brain slice to confirm the diagnosis. Therefore, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease cannot be made while the patient is still alive, and the doctor’s diagnosis can only be “suspected” of Alzheimer’s disease. Of course, doctors who study Alzheimer’s disease can achieve a 90% accuracy rate. Why go to a doctor if you can’t make a diagnosis? This is because, with a history, observation of symptoms, functional tests, and routine blood and urine cerebrospinal fluid tests, doctors can rule out other conditions that have similar symptoms to Alzheimer’s disease. For example, thyroid disease, drug reactions, depression, brain tumors, cerebrovascular disease, etc. Many of these conditions are treatable. Many of these conditions can be cured, but if they are mistaken for Alzheimer’s disease, the opportunity for treatment is missed. How can Alzheimer’s disease be treated? Alzheimer’s disease is a slowly progressive disease, with a survival time of 8-10 years and up to 20 years after “diagnosis”. There is no cure or way to slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Thousands of people around the world are studying the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, with no breakthroughs yet. However, there are some discoveries that may help some patients: 1, for symptom relief, and the clinical use of drugs are: acetylcholinesterase (AchE) inhibitors, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, etc.. 2, antioxidants (Antioxidants), such as vitamin E vitamin C, a lipoic acid (alpha-lipoicacid) and coenzyme Q (coenzymeQ). Initial observations suggest that it may slow down the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Ginkgo biloba (Ginkgobiloba) has previously been reported to improve the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Further clinical validation is currently being done. (Professor Chi Wei tao seems to have research on ginkgo biloba extract, interested parties to ask him.) 4, more exercise, diligent use of the brain. In the past, it was thought that after the brain matured in adulthood, neurons would no longer increase. However, a heartwarming clinical study in the 1990s yielded new findings. The volunteer brain donors who participated in the experiment were patients who were dying of cancer. A dye that stains the newborn neurons was injected into their brains. After the patient passed away, sections of the brain were taken and the regeneration of neurons was observed under a microscope. This study found that there were still new neurons being added to the brain up to age 60 or 70. This finding offers the possibility that if we keep exercising our brain functions in our old age, like exercising our body, we will stimulate brain cell proliferation, prolong brain life and slow down brain function degeneration. The best way to exercise the brain is to keep learning new things, such as foreign languages, computers, and mind games. 5, curry and mustard, statistics show that the rate of Alzheimer’s disease in India is relatively low in the world. According to a survey of living and eating habits, it is believed that it may be related to eating more curry. For this reason, I specifically asked a few Indians, found that what they call curry is actually a mixture of a variety of spices, including at least 5-6 kinds of things (but I did not understand what exactly), the main ingredient is turmeric (curcumin). Mustard is similar to curry. (These condiments are delicious and not expensive, may be commonly used.) 6, estrogen (Estrogen), estrogen is commonly used in the treatment of women’s menopausal syndrome, there have been studies showing that when taking estrogen has a protective effect on brain function. It was then thought that perhaps estrogen could reduce the onset or delay the progression, but clinical trials confirmed no effect. On the contrary, further studies have found that people over the age of 65 who take estrogen are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.