Alzheimer’s disease, or Alzheimer’s, is a very wide-spread illness among senior people who have crossed the age line of 65. This mysterious disease is considered terminal and degenerative and has no cure so far unfortunately. It generally starts much earlier than it is diagnosed and develops gradually. It can start with short-term memory loss and this symptom is often erratically referred to aging, or rather stress. But it is usually followed by fits of anger, also confusion, language problems occur, a person starts to experience mood swings, then long-term memory loss follows, and eventually comes decline of senses. In the end the Alzheimer’s patient looses all bodily functions little by little and dies. These are common symptoms and they differ in any individual case.
It depends on every person individual characteristics and features how long the illness will last: it can be 5 years and can be 20. People usually seek for medical aid for the first time when they start experiencing memory loss. Then, if there is any suspicion that memory loss is caused by Alzheimer’s disease, a number of tests is carried out: cognitive tests and behavioral assessment, also a brain scan. Only after that a diagnosis is stated.
What triggers the illness is not known for sure but there are presuppositions that tangles and plaques in the brain are involved. Nowadays there is no cure for the illness either; no even medication that can slow down the progress of it. Sad as it is, but these are the facts. There have been a lot of attempts to unfold the reasons and plenty of preventive measures suggested but none of the latter had any tangible effect.
Some of the most sensible preventive measures are considered exercise, balanced diet and mental stimulation; but they are still observed from the angle of general health measures and not particular ones that can guarantee the prevention. Still, taking into consideration degenerative and incurable character of the illness this is better than nothing. Therefore if, for instance, they say that Mediterranean diet consisting of cereals, vegetables, olive oil, fruits, wheat bread, and red wine is able to prevent the condition as well as Vitamins B, E and C and folic acid – than why not to try?
Long-term usage of NSAIDs can also reduce the risk of the illness in some cases. For a period of time female replacement hormone therapy was considered effective in dementia prevention but it proved wrong lately. But mind that if you have a history of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and you smoke your risk is much higher.
Perhaps, the best preventive thing is to use your cognitive recourses to the utmost, play different cognitive games, do puzzles and crosswords, learn foreign languages, etc. The more you occupy your mind the less it will wear and degrade. If a mind can be compared with a muscle then the more training the better and the less is a risk of Alzheimer’s disease.