Category: Mental Health

Keeping people with Alzheimer’s busy

Alzheimer’s disease is considered the 7th leading cause of death in the United States in 2004. The death toll continues to rise every year. The disease is the third most costly in the U.S. Heart disease and cancer are the first and second most costly respectively. It is recorded that there 24 million people with dementia worldwide, the figure will more than double by 2040.

Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that is irreversible with no known cause or cure. The disease affects two major types of abilities. Alzheimer’s affects the very simple everyday activities such as dressing, eating, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, and even walking. One needs to be assisted in order to accomplish such tasks.

The other ability affected by the disease are the performance of more complex tasks like managing finances, driving a car, preparing and cooking meals and working in a job. It is normal for people with the disease to experience problems with complex tasks first which later on move to the more simple everyday jobs as the disease progresses.

Treatment is vital for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Treating a patient requires the conglomeration of the expertise of a family doctor and various medical specialists like psychiatrists or neurologists, psychologists, therapists, nurses, social workers, and counselors. Because the disease affects not only the patient but the whole family as well.

It is very important that family members work closely with the doctors in administering the treatment. The family should be informed of activities that are dangerous for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Some of these activities include driving or cooking.

Treating dementia related symptoms of Alzheimer’s vary. But such treatments can only be effective if the dementia is caused by factors like medications, alcohol, delirium, tumors, depression, head injury and infections. There are, however, some treatments that are being used to “cure” the well being of a person afflicted with the disease.

Activities like playing music, personal interactions, playing videotapes of family members, walking and light exercise and pet therapy have been found to be successful in helping people develop friendship, mutual support and spiritual connectedness with the people around them.

However, one should remember that such activities can be beneficial to one but could be detrimental to another patient. The best activity for a person with Alzheimer’s varies. Former hobbies or points of interest of a person could also be used to help people with the disease and their families to cope.

One could assist the person to engage in activities like supervised gardening, singing, cooking, painting and drawing as long as routine is established. It is very important to engage in these activities on a regular basis for this could help the person establish a sense of stability.

Some therapies combine various activities and have proved to be fairly successful and garnered some favorable results. Such programs combine music, exercise, crafts and relaxation which obtained the best results.

Some even add various structured sessions like meditations, sensory awareness and guided imagery in their attempts to calm and pacify the already unstable behaviors of patients with Alzheimer’s.

Aside from daily physical exercise and social activities, some of the things that you also need to consider in treating a patient are proper nutrition and health maintenance; daily activities that will give the feelings of accomplishment for the individual; keeping the patient out of harm’s way; and knowing the physical and emotional limitations of the patient, the care giver team and the family.

Activities for people with Alzheimer

Alzheimers is one disease that people dread to be diagnosed with. Who can blame them?

It is one of the most debilitating disease known to man and it affects not only one area or one system but all. Of course, since it is a progressive disease, effects on the various systems of the body does not happen at one time.

As the disease progress, the effects become wide-range.

Alzheimers disease is perhaps the best-known disease under Dementia, a disorder that affects the mental processes. It is characterized by the progressive loss of memory that may lead to inattentions and inability to focus at a task, language problems and behavioral changes.

Patients with Alzheimers disease for instance may initially find themselves at a loss for words or unable to remember some bits of facts that happened the day before. But as the days progress, they will find themselves starting to forget important things like their addresses, their age and sometimes even their names.

Patients who are in the later stages of Alzheimers will start to forget how to do routinary things like brushing their teeth, taking a bath or using their utensils. Some may not speak altogether because they will often forget the words that they should be using or saying. Some will also behave differently, brought on by the frustration of not being able to do the things that they used to do. Often times, patients at the later stages will become dependents, acting like children who do not know what to do with themselves.

Although there are medicines that can slow down the progress of the disease especially if discovered early on, there is no solution to the problem. Once it settles into the system, it would be there for life and there is no chance of it ever disappearing.
Like medicines, there are activities that according to scientists can slow down the progression. Below are just some of them:

Read

Something as simple as reading the newspaper everyday and keeping your mind informed with the latest news is already something that can prevent the disease from settling in. Just make it a point to use your brain. Be an analytical reader and raise questions and do not just absorb the texts and then forget about it. Being an active reader and allowing your imagination free reign will go a long way for exercising the brain. In fact, studies have shown that people who love to read are less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimers.

Answer puzzles

Another mental exercise that people with Alzheimers do to help slow down the process is to answer puzzles such as word hunts, cross words and even Sudoku. The more that you use your brain, the better will be your prognosis. Answering word games will also make sure that you practice words and increase your vocabulary, making it less likely for you to forget words and language.

Attend classes

Being old does not mean that you cannot learn. Patients with Alzheimers should make it a point to learn something new. This will exercise their brains. Creative tasks such as arts and crafts is another way to tap into the brains resources without tiring them out. Learning a new thing also gives people with Alzheimers the sense of purpose that they have lost since they were diagnosed with the disease.

What Exactly is Alzheimers?

As uncommon as the name of the disease sounds, its prevalence and incidence rates are not. In fact, almost four million people in the United States are affected by this problem. All can be affected, men or women, across all social status and economic position in life.

Alzheimers is a progressive and degenerative problem under the umbrella of diseases called dementia. It is characterized by disorientation and impaired memory. It is apparently caused by an attack in the brain, affecting ones memory, thinking skills and judgment. Most patients will experience a change in language ability, in the way they use their mental processes and of course their behavior.

While anybody can be affected by this problem, only those that are older than age 65 experience the lagging in their thinking skills. Still, there are some who gets Alzheimers even when they are just 30 years old but these cases are very rare and can only account for a small percentage of the total number of cases. One out of 10 people over the age 65 has Alzheimers and nearly half of these patients are over 85 years old. In a national survey conducted in the United States, almost 19 million Americans have one family member who suffers from this dreaded problem.

In addition to old age, family history of dementia can also predispose someone to the disease. This is because Alzheimers is said to be caused by a problem in the genetic mutations. Still, when you study the cases, Alzheimers is commonly the result of a host of other factors besides genes. In fact, environmental factors such as hobbies and mental pursuits are things that can help prevent the onset of the problem.

What is difficult with Alzheimers is the fact that its symptoms are basically the same with ordinary signs of old age. At the beginning, there will be some memory loss. The person with Alzheimers will also experience confusion and disorientation even with things that they are used to doing. The trick is to make sure that one can recognize what a normal memory loss is against something of Alzheimers caliber.

Often, there will be a gradual memory loss. They will find it hard to read or to write or to think clearly. After which they will experience a decline in the ability to perform tasks that are already automatic and routinary. Believe it or not, in cases that are already in the terminal stage, the patient may even forget how to brush their teeth or how to use a spoon and fork, something that is really pretty basic with a lot of people.

This is one example of the difference of Alzheimers from ordinary memory loss. Forgetfulness will not affect tasks that are routinary. There will also be difficulty in learning new things and in memorizing things. Some patients may even forget the language that they are speaking with while others will no longer recognize their family. Personality will change in terms of the way they communicate with other people and the way they behave.

There is actually no change in personality per se but because of the problems in their memory, they may appear aloof and suspicious perhaps because they cannot recognize the people that they know before. Some may even become extremely fearful and passive for the simple fact that they cannot remember you. As the disease worsens, the patient will then become so incapable of taking care of themselves that they will require help even in eating and in sleeping.

Understanding Alzheimers Better

Alzheimers information is important for individuals who may be at the first stages of this disease. However, it is also very important for friends, family and caregivers of people with Alzheimers disease to have enough Alzheimers information to be able to understand the process of the progression of the disease as well as what to expect and what is the best care and treatment for this.

To understand Alzheimers more, we need to look at and understand dementia. Dementia is a mental disorder characterized by the loss of cognitive abilities. It is an extremely debilitating disease that afflicts some individuals in their old age. Alzheimers information shows that Alzheimers disease is the most common form of this disorder that greatly impairs normal mental operations.
There is no certain prevention or cure for Alzheimers disease right now but continuous studies and tests are being made toward this endeavor because according to Alzheimers information, this disease is irreversible. The disease also continues to progress into different stages and symptoms of this worsen over time.

One of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimers is short term memory loss. It then progresses into a gradual decline of other cognitive abilities. After the disease has progressed further, one may notice a marked change in the sufferer’s behavior and at the very last stages of the disease, the individual with Alzheimers will have to depend on others for simple activities such as eating and mobility.

Alzheimers information tells us that the course of the disease varies from person to person with a range of five to twenty years. Alzheimers eventually ends in death due to complications and infections.

Although more and more Alzheimers information has been collated and researched throughout the years, the progress has been steady but slow. For instance, the Alzheimers information on what causes the disease is still uncertain. There are some major hypotheses that seem to revolve around two factors: genetic or hereditary and a complex environmental interaction.

Alzheimers information shows us that it is primarily a disease that affects the brain. It is in the abnormalities in the brain that result in massive atrophy of the brain’s neurotransmitters, nerves and neurons. From these stem the malfunctions that begin with short term memory loss to sever impairment to memory and the loss of motor skills and other normal bodily functions.

An abnormally large deposit of protein in the brain causes the massive atrophy. The absolute detection of Alzheimers can only really be done post mortem through an autopsy where the brain is examined and it shows a significant amount of shrinkage and a smoothening of the usual brain wrinkles.

However, one need not wait for an autopsy to find out whether one is suffering from Alzheimers disease or not. With modern Alzheimers information, one can have an 85 % to 90% accuracy in the diagnosis of the disease. No laboratory tests are done.
Instead, there will be some cognitive tests and with a series of exercises and questions that are crossed checked against other possible sources of dementia. These mental tests done to be able to diagnose Alzheimers help also by letting the physician know at which stage of progression the sufferer may be at.

Individuals with the age of 65 and above are most likely to be at risk of Alzheimers.