The theme of the World Alzheimer's Day in 2022 will be "Know the enemy, know the friend, prevent early and be wise, and work together for the future". We will continue to focus on early screening and early diagnosis. Through publicity, we will learn about the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and work together to overcome the problem of prevention and care of Alzheimer's disease with knowledge, respect, goodwill and help ourselves and people around us.

What is Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system, which occurs in the elderly and pre elderly and is characterized by progressive cognitive dysfunction and behavioral damage. Clinical manifestations include memory impairment, aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, impairment of visual spatial ability, impairment of abstract thinking and computing power, personality and behavior changes.

Social status of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia in old age, and also one of the most common chronic diseases in old age, accounting for about 50%~70% of dementia in old age.

At present, there are as many as 5 million Alzheimer's patients in China, accounting for one fourth of the total cases in the world, and there are an average of 300000 new cases every year. There are more women than men with Alzheimer's disease. Women over 60 years old have Alzheimer's disease, which is usually two to three times that of their male counterparts. This publicity day is held every year in many countries and regions around the world to make the whole society understand that the prevention of Alzheimer's disease is very important and should be given enough attention.

Several stages of Alzheimer's disease

The first stage has no trace

Neurons in the patient's brain began to die, but not enough died. It did not affect the patient's normal life, normal thinking and expression.
This is the first stage. Unfortunately, no scientific and technological means can detect this stage.

The second stage is "old fool"

At this stage, you may feel that you are forgetful, have a poor memory, and feel that you are "old fool".

In general, what we mean by "old fool" is that when people get old, their organs have a natural process of exhaustion, so people's memory and behavior have a certain decline. However, although the old fool can gradually become serious as time goes on, he will not become so serious that his family will accompany him throughout his life. But Alzheimer's disease is not. It will become more and more serious as time goes by.

Therefore, the concepts of senility and dementia are completely different.

Stage 3 Strange forgetfulness

Over time, the disease will develop to a third stage, namely, strange amnesia.

Although people will forget something when they are old, it seems that it is strange to forget something. They always forget what just happened, but they still have memories of what happened decades ago. Then, this time has entered the third stage, which is also the only golden time window for treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Although the current medicine cannot reverse the disease, if our patients can receive the correct treatment from the hospital at this stage, the development of this disease will be greatly extended, the quality of life of patients in the next few decades will be significantly improved, and the heavy burden of corresponding families will be reduced.

When the old people around you have strange forgetfulness, please take them to the doctor quickly.

Stage 4 Mild Alzheimer's

People at this stage are mainly expressed as: Hey, what did I just say? Did I just eat? I don't know, I forgot all about it. But at this time, their lives can still take care of themselves.

Stage 5 Moderate Alzheimer's

With the passage of time, it will enter the fifth stage. At this time, the patient completely needs family members to accompany him. He can no longer take care of his own life, and he will forget time and space. It is at this stage that most people go to the hospital for treatment.

Stage 6 Severe Alzheimer's

At this stage, there is a very typical feature, that is, there will be an obvious change in the behavior of the patients. They may become very irritable, get angry for no reason, throw things, throw things, hit people, Curse people, but please remember, it's not that they don't love us anymore, and they're not really angry, but the neurons in their brains. At this time, a large number of deaths have occurred, and there is no way for them to exercise a normal thinking function.

Predisposing factors of alzheimer's disease

△ Smoking and alcoholism: Nicotine in tobacco can stimulate corresponding receptors in the brain, and these receptors play an important role in brain thinking and memory. Smoking also accelerates cerebral medullary ischemia and causes cognitive impairment. Mild drinking can prevent dementia and improve blood circulation, but excessive drinking can lead to cognitive decline. Therefore, it is recommended that the elderly stop smoking and drink moderately.

△ Staying still and living alone: Some elderly people do not like sports when they are old and feel that their arms and legs are not flexible. Research shows that sports activities, entertainment and social activities can effectively stimulate brain cell metabolism, improve the brain's perception of external things, and reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's.

The elderly who live alone have little communication with others, which accelerates the brain degeneration. Good hobbies can make people happy and healthy. It is suggested that the elderly should do more holistic body activities and intellectual activities, such as walking, health exercises, tai chi, square dancing, chess and cards, calligraphy and other activities, but do not exercise too much, do what you can, and stick to it.

△ Poor sleep and diet: Too much or too little sleep may increase the risk of dementia. Good sleep habits can help prevent cognitive decline. It is recommended that the elderly soak their feet in hot water before sleep to improve sleep quality. Vitamin B and folic acid intake can reduce the risk of dementia. It is recommended that the elderly eat more green leafy vegetables, oranges, tomatoes, cauliflower, fungi, millet, walnuts and other foods.

Alzheimer's disease is not far from everyone's life. Learn more, find it early, and treat it in time to help ourselves and the people around us.