Dementia and Alzheimer’s

Mother Nature has a way of making sure we know when we’re growing old. As a person ages, symptoms of old age slowly appear, both physiological and psychological.

Physical symptoms of old age include loss of hearing, slowness of movement, the onset of arthritis like stiffness of joints and muscles, blurring of sight, impairment of taste, loss of teeth, erectile dysfunction, dryness of skin, etc.

Though the physical aspect of old age is an important issue and needs to be addressed, an even larger concern should be placed in the psychological state of elderly people. It is in this area that people in their old age suffer the most, significantly affecting their families, loved ones, and close friends.

In old age, mental issues are the most pronounced. It is mostly caused by the environment, the way the person had been living in his younger years, as well as genetics. One of the most observed mental disorders seen among the elderly is dementia.

Dementia is defined as a gradual degradation in cognitive function beyond the cycle of normal aging. The signs of dementia include differentiation in personality or behavior, degradation in memory, attention, comprehension and expression of language, and resolution of problems, among a few.

Symptoms can be characterized as curable and incurable. Usually, dementia symptoms are complicated by the onset of other effects such as delusions, delirium, depression, and other mental disorders.

To properly diagnose its symptoms, dementia is subjected to rigorous testing developed over the years to detect and classify a patient’s mental illness. These tests are the ABMTS or Abbreviated Mental Test Score and the MMSE or Mini Mental State Examination. Coupled with other physical and mental tests, psychiatrists make the final decision on a patient through looking at the overall clinical picture of his mental state.

The most common form of dementia found in the elderly is Alzheimer’s disease. This mental illness primarily affects the memory of the elderly. As the disease progresses, its symptoms will include the loss of language comprehension, coordination, recognition and problem solving abilities.

Complicating Alzheimer’s will also see the inclusion of behavioral changes like anger, violence, denial, total passivity, depression and such.

Biologically, Alzheimer’s disease is found to be caused by the rapid decrease or neurons to the brain which results in atrophy. The causes have been primarily genetic in nature and there has been no known cure for it, although progress on delaying its onset has been marginally successful.

Attempts at total prevention of Alzheimer’s disease have so far been elusive. There is no proven way to detect the mental disorder before its onset, which makes it difficult. DNA testing is possible but expensive to execute. The common denominator for its appearance in the elderly has always been age.

To increase the possibility of prevention, studies have shown that people who use their minds more often have a less likelihood of contracting the disease compared to others who do not.

The game of chess stood out as the greatest method of prevention compared to solving crossword puzzles and dancing.

Furthermore, other studies have shown that activities that prevent the onset of cardiac arrest and stroke made great progress in finding less occurrences of Alzheimer’s in patients. Special mention has to be given to the subject of dancing.

Dancing has been found in another study to have made very significant strides on making Alzheimer’s less likely to occur in the elderly due to the requirement of dance to integrate coordination of the mind and body.

Consumption of vitamins C and E has also been seen to affect Alzheimer’s prevention greatly. Studies show it has an 80% chance of preventing Alzheimer’s onset only if the dosage was at least 400 IU for vitamin E and 500 IU of vitamin C per day. This is much less than the daily dose offered by multivitamins in the market today.

Vitamins E and C must be taken in tandem to be effective. Consumption of vitamin E only slightly improves the chance of prevention while a large dose of vitamin C only has no effect. Vitamin E in large doses also poses a health risk to patients due to its ability to be active in the presence of free radicals. The presence of vitamin C, an antioxidant, makes the dosage safe to use.

Lifestyle changes that prevent the appearance of Alzheimer’s disease include quitting smoking, weight reduction, and insulin regulation.