Updated on 17. June 2020, 11:16 PM
The people in Germany are getting older and older. Thus, the number of people developing dementia is growing. The disease progresses insidiously, and is not to diagnose in the early stage easily. A couple of signs there are, however, also a self-test may help in detection.
Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness, problems with concentration – so many older people have to fight. Behind it must not always equal to a dementia, but it may be the first signs of it.
Alzheimer’s dementia is a specific Form of dementia, the after and after nerve cells die in the brain. It is called so, because it is caused by the disease Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause is that people are demented.
What leads to the death of the nerve cells, is not known. In studies were, however, identified risk factors, which favor the. This includes excessive alcohol consumption, elevated cholesterol levels, Diabetes and lack of exercise – but also depression and loneliness include Smoking. As protective factors of a balanced diet, lots of social contacts and a lot of movement to apply.
Usually Alzheimer’s disease occurs from 65 upwards
“There is also a hereditary Form of Alzheimer’s, when a particular Gene with a 50-percent probability of the descendants passed on,” said Susanna Saxl, the German Alzheimer’s society in conversation with our editorial staff. But: This only applies to a percentage of the cases, and inheritance does not mean alone that the disease breaks out also.
The hereditary Alzheimer’s disease often occurs in middle-age and not – as usual – rather, from the age of 65 years. It should be in a family, several of such cases, it can be a Genetic sense, to be able to an outbreak of the disease early enough to recognize. Otherwise, experts of such analyses, rates were more likely to stir up because they bring in most of the cases, nothing but unnecessary fear.
Even if the disease is not hereditary, there may be such a thing as a predisposition. “Has someone from the family Alzheimer’s dementia increases the risk for all the Relatives first and second degree, to become ill also. For the first-degree Relatives, i.e. children, then it is four times as high as the Rest of the population. For relatives of the second degree, so the brothers and sisters, it is twice as high,” says Susanna Saxl.
Healthy lifestyle protects against Alzheimer’s
Is part of a healthy lifestyle that can keep Alzheimer’s disease away, a well-balanced diet. “It has been shown that the Mediterranean food here is very good: lots of vegetables, olive oil, little red meat,” says Susanna Saxl. In addition, Sport is important. “Daily 30 minutes of exercise three times per week of intense exercise would be the optimum.”
Basically, for the avoidance of risk factors in Alzheimer’s disease: What is good for the heart good, is also good for the brain. Because the brain needs oxygen and nutrients, the heart provides the blood circulation.
This means that people who have a vascular disease, should be especially cautious. “Hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias should be treated,” says Saxl. Since brain injury can help the brain in old age degrades excessively, we recommend you to wear a Bicycle helmet to be the case of a fall better protected.
“You can’t determine the personal risk, you can discretion, but on your own life style and medical history, and to some extent,” says Alzheimer’s expert.
Early detection is important
In spite of caution will develop measures in the future people with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. Experts have recently predicted that it will be in Germany in the year 2050 of about 2.7 million. This would be nearly twice as many as now.
To detect the disease early, helps in the treatment. Not only because there are drugs that can delay the start of the course. “But also because a diagnosis helps the person Affected and to the relatives with the disease. And a good deal has a very positive effect on the further course of the disease,” says Susanna Saxl.
Everyday things are difficult
The symptoms are not especially at the beginning clear: The Concerned, forget important dates, short-term memory is worse. Gradually, you can no longer bring individual pieces of information in context, and conclusions drawn from them – for example, that you should dress in the winter, the weather is warm.
Complex things, such as a tax return for people in the early stages of dementia impossible. “You almost need gears always help with business and financial Affairs or the authorities,” writes the Institute for quality and efficiency in health care (IQWiG).
Other signs: they withdraw from social life, go to their Hobbies and leisure more activities. You can’t follow conversations difficult, their answers often refer to what I said before, you use words that do not fit in the context.
In addition, Concerned not to lose, increasingly, the spatial and temporal orientation and knowledge, for example, all of a sudden, where your nearest supermarket is. Also mood swings are typical: from sad to happy, from passive to aggressive and everything in between.
A reliable diagnosis, there is not
The Alzheimer’s research Initiative e. V. has summarized these early signs in a catalogue of questions as a kind of “self-test”. The Association stresses that the catalogue can’t make a diagnosis, but merely the well-known first signs of Alzheimer’s dementia query.
Susanna Saxl advises rather to talk with the house doctor: “Together with him can be other causes for forgetfulness, lack of concentration or mood swings excluded. Strong Vitamin B12 deficiency, a thyroid malfunction or too little fluid intake can sometimes have similar symptoms.”
Ultimately, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is dementia, anyway according to the exclusion principle, because there is no method that will provide you with one hundred percent safety.
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