Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Alzheimer's Disease - A Brain Disorder

Alzheimer's Disease - A Brain Disorder

Alzheimer's disease is one of the commonest problems faced by old people. This disease slowly and gradually takes over your mind to leave you as blank as a clean slate. Alzheimer's disease is a brain disorder and one of the most common causes of dementia. Dementia damages the brain's basic functionality of memory, thinking, behavioral pattern and emotion. It is one of the most common forms of irreversible dementia. With the increasing age your chances increases too, to get affected by this condition. Once you cross 60 you become more susceptible to this disease. Though you will find young people getting affected too but, that is a rare case.

Under this condition the nerve cells near the brain, key to memory and mental activities and connections between nerve cells are damaged. This loss of connectivity causes serious damage to the brain which spoils the thinking process and the memory. Some common symptoms of this disease is memory loss, confused state, personality changes, loss of language skills, forgetfulness, losing power of reading, writing and speaking, failing to understand language as well as familiar faces. After a period of time patients may loose total touch with their life and require full time care.

It starts off with mild memory problem which ends with severe brain damage. The severity of the disease may differ from person to person which can be determined by the diagnosis of the doctor. People suffering from Alzheimer's can live for another 8 to 10 years or even more, once they have been diagnosed. There are many drugs in the market which have claimed to treat this disease. By the proper guidance of the doctor you can start your treatment with medicines like cholinesterase inhibitors donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl or Razadyne), and rivastigmine (Exelon). The other is NMDA receptor memantine (known as Ebixa, Axura or Namenda).

Herbal Medicines

Antioxidants have showed immense improvement with Alzheimer's. Antioxidants like vitamin E and C slows the progress of this disease. These can be recovered by antioxidant diet like fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds.

Essential fatty acids are very useful in treating this disease. Regular consumption of cold-water fish which has EFA also known as Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids are very useful for treating this problem.

A high-magnesium diet proves to be very handy to evade this problem. Avoid processed food and diary products. Increase magnesium consumption by eating peanuts, almonds, spinach, navy beans, broccoli, kelp and many more.

Studies have also shown that the leaves of ginkgo biloba tree also helps in minimizing the cruel effect of this problem. There is no actual cure but the consumption prevents dementia problem.

Huperzine A derived from Hyperzia serrata (Club Moss) is very useful in improving your memory, behavioral patterns without any side effects.

Vinpocetine has come from Vinca minor (Periwinkle) which improves brain circulation and utilization of oxygen.

Bacopa monnieri (Water hyssop, Brahmi) works tremendously for nerve impulse and to build-up on memory and cognition.

Warning: The reader of this article should exercise all precautionary measures while following instructions on the home remedies from this article. Avoid using any of these products if you are allergic to it. The responsibility lies with the reader and not with the site or the writer.

Kevin Pederson