What is Alzheimer's disease?
For a long time, the medical community has always believed that Alzheimer's disease is caused by cerebral blood circulation disorder in the elderly, and it is an inevitable phenomenon in the process of human aging. From 65438 to 0906, Harmo Harmo, a German neurologist, discovered a strange case: the patient was a woman, only 50 years old, but she had severe dementia symptoms-memory loss, disorientation and hallucinations. After the patient died, Harmo, an Alzheimer's patient, dissected her body and found that there were many tangled nerve fibers in her brain, which he called "neurofibrillary tangles". The case of Alzheimer's Harmo's disease discovered by Hamor is named "Alzheimer's Harmo's disease". In recent 50 years, Alzheimer's Harmo's disease has been considered as a very rare disease, which mainly occurs in middle-aged people aged 40-50, so it is also called "Alzheimer's Harmo's disease". At the end of 1960s, researchers found the same neurofibrillary tangles in the brain tissues of Alzheimer's patients with the help of electron microscope. The medical profession clearly stated that Alzheimer's disease is neither "premature senility" nor rare. Therefore, some people also refer to Alzheimer's disease as Alzheimer's disease. However, according to recent literature reports, Terry found that 30 ~ 40% of the patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease did not find the typical pathological changes of Alzheimer's disease after autopsy. Hiroyuki Murakami and others classified Alzheimer's disease as cerebrovascular disorder dementia and brain atrophy dementia, and classified Alzheimer's disease as a brain degeneration disease similar to Alzheimer's disease.
Memory loss is the most common early symptom. Patients can't remember their names, and often ask each other's names just after introduction. I can't remember simple things, and sometimes I don't know why when I go out. Development and even maintenance function are also hindered, that is, the memory of the past is difficult to reproduce, the place of birth is forgotten, and even the relatives who live together day and night can't recognize it. Language has also lost its fluency, so it is often good to be vague and ambiguous. You can't do the operation correctly, just like a simple calculation like 1+3, sometimes you can answer 100. When memory loss affects work, social activities and daily life, it is often an ominous sign of danger.
In addition, some patients complain that their eyes have problems because they can't read any more. They wanted to get a glass of milk from the kitchen, but somehow, they couldn't help walking into the bedroom. Some patients feel weak and uncoordinated when doing mechanical actions, such as combing their hair. This is called apraxia. Dr John Claughton of Boston Massachusetts General Hospital pointed out that the difference of early symptoms mainly lies in the different parts of the brain damaged.
After the early symptoms appear, patients will become more and more demented. The first is to judge the abnormality. In the middle of winter, it is typical for patients to wear summer clothes. In the shower, patients may confuse the cold water switch with the hot water switch, thus scalding themselves. Sometimes pesticides are mistaken for beer. If the condition worsens, patients will urinate everywhere, don't know where to go to the toilet, don't know where their home is, don't know what season it is, and don't even remember who their wife is. Some patients may become excitable and afraid to meet strangers. Some also steal things, beat people, expose their genitals in public places and play with their own urine. When the disease develops to this point, the patient needs full-time care.
In the late stage, some patients almost completely lost their ability to speak and move, stayed in bed all day, and their faces, arms, legs, muscles and skin shrank. In the pain before death, some patients curled up like fetuses. The speed of disease development mainly depends on the speed of initial onset, including fast onset and rapid deterioration, slow onset and slow deterioration. The direct cause of patients' final death is often pneumonia (pneumonia caused by food being sucked into the lungs).
In addition to mental decline, Alzheimer's disease is accompanied by decreased will and initiative, as well as various mental symptoms, most of which are nocturnal delirium (a temporary disturbance of consciousness that occurs at night, manifested as hallucinations, hallucinations, blurred consciousness, etc. ). You can often see melancholy, hesitation, paranoia, anxiety and other states. According to the survey, the proportion of dementia with mental symptoms is as follows:
Delirium at night? 2% melancholy state 12? 1% delusions 14 8% wandering 1 1? 1% suspicious 10? 1% fire 3? 9% restless 9? 9% unclean behavior 2? 2% aggressive 4? 4% attempted suicide 1? 1% dementia elderly people are more common in stroke sequelae (namely cerebral hemorrhage, commonly known as stroke), followed by hypertension. According to a survey in Tokyo, Japan, 45% of dementia elderly people have sequelae of stroke, 34% have hypertension, 30% have hemiplegia, more than 60% have drowsiness, or suddenly fall asleep, and about 40% have incontinence.