History of Alzheimer

Dr. Aloysis “Alois” Alzheimer (1864- 1915), German psychiatrist and neuropathologist presented the first ever case of ‘presenile dementia’ exactly hundred years ago, on 4 Nov 1906. He was colleague of the great psychologist of that time, Kraepelin.

Dr. Alois studied a patient in 1901, Mrs. Auguste Deter who was in her 50’s and who became his passion in no time. She had developed dementia and would get agitated and restless at times. After her death in April, 1906 Alois got her reports and brain studied at Kraepelin’s lab in Munich. In study, he found that the brain of Mrs. Deter has shrunken and there were unusual abnormalities in and around the brain. And, later on the disease was named after his name as ‘Alzeimer’s Disease.’

Gravity of disease

Alzheimer’s (AHLZ-high-merz) disease is said to affect around 25 million people worldwide and the number is increasing day by day as populations is increasing. It has been estimated that by the mid-century the number could raise up to 100 million people worldwide.

Even after hundred years we are not able to find a medication for this disease.

Think what would happen if you are not able to recall your way back home or say simply what your name is? Slowly and slowly you will forget the everyday simple things, thinking of such situation makes one shiver. Above all, this disease is neither reversible nor curable.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative deterioration of brain which slowly destroys the memory and person’s ability to read, write, remember things or carry out day to day activities are affected. Changes in an individual’s behavior or personality can be seen as he or she can become restless, anxious, confused, agitated even delusion (false belief) and hallucination (false perception) can be seen in some cases. The duration of illness may often vary from 3 to 20 years.

The patients are usually found cited as saying “I have lost myself” or say their self is lost same was the case with Mrs. Auguste Deter.

Famous personalities affected by Alzeimer

Former President Ronald Rogan is the best example of this disease, he had written in his letter the problems and difficulties faced during the disorder but the good thing was that in his letter he had showed hope and desire to live his life as he used to live in past along with concern for people who cared for him.

Then the other example one could find is Dame Jean Iris Murdoch, British writer, who had written wide acclaimed novels first being ‘Under The Net’, which was selected as one of the best novel out of hundred books in the 2001. In her later years she was diagnosed as having Alzheimer disease. In 1956, she married to John Bayley and the struggle and problems they faced due to her disease were penned down by Bayley, and even a movie was made, named Iris (2002). She forgot the simple grammatical things and her vocabulary got poor.

Causes:

Age – The biggest risk factor is advancing age. People aged 65 or older are at risk of developing the disease. Risk of Alzheimer nearly doubles every five years of age, at age of 95 nearly one half will have the disease.

Genetic Factors – You are at higher risk if you have a sibling or any close member in your family suffering from this disease.

Head Injury – Positive relation has been found between head injury and future risk of dementia.

Heart brain connection – Keep your heart healthy and it will in turn keep your brain healthy. Brain is said to be nourished by pumping of heart.

Diagnosis and Treatment:

The first and foremost need is to understand the disease and not take it as part of aging. Well, it can not be distinguished at first as we generally think it as part of aging process.

The exact test for the disease can be known only by autopsy so it’s a bit difficult to diagnose it in living human beings. The diagnosis is done on the basis of history, clinical observation and memory tests performed by the psychiatrist or psychologist for a period of time along with various physical tests. The accurate diagnosis depends on how expert your clinician is.

A test known as Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) or Folstein test is used to test dementia, it is a 30 question questionnaire and includes questions regarding time and space, mathematics, language use, comprehension, repeating words, copying drawings etc.

Studies have shown that numbers of baby bloomers, aged 61 are on rise. Take example of UK where majority of population is of elderly and the demand to find a cure is more pressing as according to Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, says "The number of people with Alzheimer's is going to double in the next 20 to 30 years," she warned.

The average yearly cost of care for an individual with Alzheimer’s is $174,000.

Prevention:

Researches are being carried out in this field but the problem is that it is quite expensive and time consuming. Though, now it’s possible to diagnose the disease at the earlier stage and medication is provided in some cases but complete cure is still far away.

Rebecca Wood says, "If we can persuade people to have a much better diet and increase their exercise level and keep their brain active by doing things like crosswords, that will help to stave off the risk of Alzheimer's.”

Along with this, studies have showed that wearing a nicotine patch helps, but one should not start up smoking as it may lead to stokes and heart diseases.

Eating rich meditarrian diet will help in cutting down the risk by 40%, according to a US study published in April. Exercising brain by activities like sudoku, criss-cross, solving puzzles, learning new language, playing chess etc help.

The only two components which can help the patient are ‘care’ and ‘support’. It provides them enough courage to go on in life from the moment they have come to know of the disease to the end of their life.

This is no doubt a slow and painful death for the sufferer but at the same time the people around them also emotionally hurt as they have to see them suffer but there is nothing much to do.

Though, no treatment can stop this disease but some medicine do help if taken in the initial or middle stages. Few drugs are approved by FDA which can control the behavioural symptoms. Reserchers are being carried on in this field to understand what lead to this disesae, to find new drug, treatment and improve the accuracy in the diagnosis. So, hopefully this mysterious disease