ALZHEIMER

Dementia is the progressive loss of cognitive function due to damage or brain disorders.

Within dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia among older people. Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities.

The Alzheimer's begins slowly. First involves the parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language. People with AD may have trouble remembering things that happened recently or names of people they know. A related problem, mild cognitive impairment, causes more memory problems than normal for people of the same age. Many, but not all people with mild cognitive impairment will develop Alzheimer's. Over time, in Alzheimer's, symptoms worsen. People may not recognize family members or have trouble speaking, reading or writing. They may forget how to brush their teeth or comb their hair. Later, they may become anxious or aggressive, or wander away from home. Ultimately need total care. This can be very stressful for family members who must care for their care.

It usually begins after age 60. The risk increases as people age. The risk is higher if there are people in the family who had the disease.


The progress of the disease can be faster or slower depending on the environment of the person with Alzheimer's. It's not an easy situation and the family will have to make great efforts to provide the person with Alzheimer most favorable environment possible.

Accelerators disease

- Family Stress
- Sudden changes in daily routines
- Switch to a new, unknown address (such as nursing homes).

Retarders of disease

- Happy family atmosphere
- Exercise
- Socialize with your friends or others

TREATMENT

No treatment can stop the disease. However, some drugs may help prevent a limited time symptoms worse.


There is some evidence that stimulation of the cognitive helps slow the loss of these functions and abilities. This stimulation is to work those areas that still retains the patient so that training to compensate for the losses that the patient is suffering with the disease.
Psychosocial interventions are used in conjunction with drug therapy and are classified as behavior-oriented approaches, emotions, cognitive and stimulation. Research on the effectiveness of these interventions are not yet available and, in fact, rarely are specific to Alzheimer's, focusing on dementia in general



BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Vernooij-Dassen M. Draskovic I. McCleery J. Downs M. Cognitive reframing for carers of people with dementia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 11. Art. No.: CD005318. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005318.pub2. Disponible en: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD005318.pub2/abstract

Enfermedad del Alzheimer y degeneración macular asociada a la edad, 2006. Revisado en: http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?pid=S0365-66912006000200006&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt