AD (Alzheimer’s disease) is also called SDAT (Senile Dementia-Alzheimer’s Type). The battle with AD is global. That means all countries deal with this. You should know that there are two types of AD to include early onset and late onset. The former appears before you turn 60. The latter is the common type and it usually appears after you turn 60. Scientists still study its causes but it seems that the environment and your genes play a part in AD’s development.
If in this case you have an elder in your household, you should learn everything you can about AD so you will know what to do. The first thing that you should do is identify the symptoms. Symptoms include personality changes, language problems, misplacing things, difficulty in performing day-to-day tasks and getting lost. As AD progresses, the patient will suffer agitation, delusions, depression, forgetting, changing of sleep patterns, hallucinations, violent behaviour, poor judgment and many more.
If you noticed that your elder has symptoms mentioned above, you should bring him/her to your doctor to be diagnosed immediately. The bad news here is that there is no cure for AD but there are certain treatments that should be undertaken to slow its progression. There are drugs that are developed to help slow the progression of AD.
Have you heard about the Bapineuzumab (by Johnson and Johnson) and Solanezumab (by Eli Lilly)? For years, the drugs were developed to fight the accumulation of the plaques in the brain for AD patients. But on January 22, 2014, scientists yielded and said that they were unsuccessful. Scientists failed but they gained lessons from it. You should not lose hope. Meanwhile, you can consider main drugs used for AD patients to include:
Donepezil, Rivastigmine & Galantamine
Scientists discovered that the brains of AD patients demonstrates nerve cells loss. The nerve cells use a chemical (called acetycholine) that serves as a chemical messenger. The loss of these nerve cells are linked with the seriousness of symptoms of patients. The good news is that donepezil, rivastigmine & galantamine can prevent acetycholine which can lead to the escalation of communication amongst nerve cells.
Memantine
Memantine is different from the drugs mentioned above for it is more complex. In the case of memantine, it effectively impedes a chemical messenger called glutamate. When the brain cells are destroyed by AD, glutamate is discharged which can cause further damage in the brain cells. Memantine will impede or block the extra glutamate present in the brain.
It is better if you ask your doctors about drugs and other treatments.
Leave a Reply