Nutrition And Balanced Diet

Alzheimers Associations - some useful web links that can provide a wealth of information about Alzheimer’s.

Modern drugs can help sooth agitation, anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness, and may also help boost participation in daily activities. Newer Alzheimer’s Disease medications are also becoming available that can improve or preserve thinking skills, at least temporarily.

Even though no treatment can stop Alzheimer’s, for some people in the early and middle stages of the disease, the drugs tacrine (Cognex®), donepezil (Aricept®), rivastigmine (Exelon®), or galantamine (Razadyne®, formerly known as Reminyl®) may help prevent some symptoms from becoming worse for a limited time. Another drug, memantine (Namenda®), has been approved to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer’s, although it also is limited in its effects.

The research into the causes and possible cures for Alzheimer’s Disease are very important areas of research. Understanding the causes should lead to more effective, targeted treatments and additional options for treating the disease in the future.

At this stage, scientists generally agree that there is unlikely to be a single clear cause for Alzheimer’s. What is clear is that Alzheimer’s develops as a result of a very complex cascade of biological processes that take place over many years inside the brain.

Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of brain disorders that impair a person’s mental functioning, especially memory, thinking, and behavior.

The term dementia literally means loss of mentation or thinking. Dementia is a broad term which describes the loss of memory, intellect, rationality, social skills and normal emotional reactions.

Alzheimer’s disease is not a condition where one suffers alone. The patient, his family and those in his proximity suffer as well. In fact Alzheimer’s disease is associated with a significant amount of carer’s risk since the carer is exposed to a tiring and punishing schedule that exposes him to both physical and mental agony.

Alzheimer’s disease manifests itself primarily in the deterioration of brain functions and its related side effects. One of the key elements is an appearance of acceleration of the brains’ aging process as gradual loss of brain functions. In this regard, the condition gives rise to “elderly like Alzheimer’s’ symptoms” as the brain functions slowly deteriorate.

Patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease often run into eating problems and in severe cases this may even border on malnutrition. There are a number of reasons why Alzheimer’s disease patients are very fussy about food texture and have very pronounced preference (if at all) for certain foods.

The slow degradation due to Alzheimer’s disease also causes patients to suffer long term outcomes. Medication is most effective when treatement starts early and therefore it is essential to recognize Alzheimer’s disease as early as possible.

Inappropriate sexual behaviour in a person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease can cause problems on occasion. As the Alzheimer’s disease progresses and the sufferer becomes more disabled, sexual activity usually declines naturally.