Alzheimer's Disease Treatments

Introduction

Alzheimer's disease is a disease that mostly occurs during old age. It is a form of dementia that causes degeneration of cognitive abilities in a human body and makes the victim unable to perform daily activities like reasoning, planning or retaining information. The disorder gets diagnosed not before a person is 65 years old. However, the disease creeps inside the human mind much earlier that gets revealed through frequent memory loss, repetition, lack of logic etc. These disorders intensify as Alzheimer's degenerates the human brain more and more with time.

Symptoms

The experience associated with the disease is always unique to every patient having few common features running through all who are affected by the disease. The common symptoms are as follows:

- Memory loss- When it first shows in a person, it is mostly not taken seriously and people around mistake it to be a common age-related problem borne out of stress.

- Confusion-The patient loses his sense of decision-making and reasoning and thus feels confused.

- Mood-swings-The patient fluctuates in temperament, and often suffers from mood-swings. Her impatience can also make him easily irritable and aggressive.

Treatments

Alzheimer's disease till date does not have a cure. The key root of the disease is still unknown and even scientists are yet to invent appropriate medication for the disease to completely eradicate the decline from a human body. There are drugs to treat Alzheimer's. But these treatments do not cure the disease. All they do is slow the spread of the illness. Such drugs can slow down memory loss, and can prevent mood-swings to some extent so that the patient can to an extent feel active enough to try out things like walking, shopping etc. The drugs help to calm down patients in case they become too reckless and difficult to handle. However, drugs need to be consumed with complete medical vigilance to reduce risks of major side effects.

Beside drugs, there are natural cure processes. These practices also help slow down the pace of deterioration of the disease devoid of any side effects. The following are such prevention mechanisms:

- Engaging in intellectual activities that will keep the brain functioning like reading, board games, card games, puzzles etc.

- Engaging in music, playing instruments

- Continuous social interaction

All these are measures can be taken to slow down Alzheimer's. However, there is no permanent cure to make a patient get rid of the disease. It normally takes place in old age and ends with death. The best cure till then that an Alzheimer's patient can have is love and care.

Doctors have always stated that the key need of an Alzheimer's patient is an affectionate care giver who is sensitive to the patient and handles him or her with patience, a lot of love. A loving human touch can go a long way in pampering the mental health of the patient thereby saving him from depression, sense of uselessness. A good caregiver can induce hope in a patient's eyes so that he can look forward to the number of years he is left with.