Beating Alzheimer

Moments make memories and our minds retain them. Small everyday events fill in the treasure of memories, eventually forming the fabric of our life. Take away brain’s ability of thinking, reasoning, remembering, learning, correlating and imagining and the person carries on without being alive.

Facts

• Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia– brain disorder that affects memories.
• It has no cure. This progressive degenerative disorder of brain reduces an active person to the state of vegetable.
• Alzheimer’s afflicts people 60 or older. In rare instances people as young as 40 may also suffer from it.

Nirmala Narula, President of Alzheimer Related Disorder Society, Delhi, that is aiming to create awareness on dementia, explains–

Symptoms

• Forgetting rudimentary things of life—like ability to speak simple sentences, see time and gradually taking care of themselves
• Declining ability to reason and think
• Behavioural changes

Alzheimer’s is callous. Patients forget their spouse, children, grow secluded and eventually develop a blank, Alzheimer’s stare. Care giving involves a huge burden on the family both financially and emotionally.
Dr. Manjari Tripathi, Consultant Neurology with All India Institute of Medical Sciences, elaborates, “Alzheimer’s is more than forgetfulness that accompanies old age. In this form of dementia, protein deposits appear and spread in the brain, particularly in the cortex and the hippocampus, brain’s memory center. Neurons in certain locations of the brain begin to die, and the levels of important chemical transmitters, such as acetylcholine, go down.”

Risk Factors

• Old age
• Genetic makeup
• Nutritional Deficiencies—People with Alzheimer’s tend to have low levels of vitamin B 12, vitamin A, E, carotenoids and zinc in their bodies.
• Lifestyle Factors—Factors like–obesity, sedentary living, stress, hypertension and junk food can not only predispose us to diabetes and heart attack but also to Alzheimer’s.
• Other Factors—Studies have linked a relationship between, sustaining repeated head injuries and Alzheimer’s.

Doc Speak

Dr Manjari Tripathi, Consultant Neurologist with AIIMS says

• Growing old is a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s, and it increases with advancing age.
• Alzheimer’s is different from forgetfulness. It is normal to forget where you have kept your glasses but it is not abnormal to forget that you wear them.
• Changes in the baseline behaviour— if you notice that a sixty year old is acting in an absent minded way, repeatedly forgetting things, it warrants a check up.
• Medication can only stabilise disease. Research is underway to discover a vaccine that may prevent Alzheimer’s.
• Till then staying physically active, eating a nutritious diet and remaining mentally alert may help you push Alzheimer’s away.

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