Firstly, what you need to realise is that Alzheimer s is not dementia and the main point you need to remember about the difference between the two is that the former is a disease while the latter is a syndrome. Alzheimer s is a neurodegenerative disease, it breaks down the cognitive functions of the brain and reduces a person s ability to function properly. It s one of the foremost reasons for untimely senility in middle-aged to old-aged persons.

It can be a scary time for the patient themselves as well as for friends and family alike but fear not, there are ways to reduce the chances of suffering from this painful predicament. Here are a few easy hacks to keep in mind to stave off the risk of Alzheimer s:

Fix your diet: Cut down on saturated fats and construct a diet combining lots of healthy vitamin and mineral rich foods, fruits and vegetables. Vitamin E is essential as well as vitamin B12 which can also be taken in the form of supplements. Vitamin E can be found in foods like spinach and even nuts. Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago has, after a lot of research, developed the MIND and DASH diets. The Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet collates portions of the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet to create the perfect combination that has been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer s by 53 percent.
Exercise mental and physical: A sedentary lifestyle is one of the major causes of Alzheimer s because it leads to slower brain activity and an overall unhealthy lifestyle. To break out of this you need to regularly exercise and not just physical exercises but also mental exercises such as solving mental maths and crosswords and reading books and newspapers. There are a lot of apps concerning games that help boost brain activity on the market that can help as well. Physical exercise can include swimming, brisk walking, joking and even gardening.
Reduce stress: Stress proves to be a huge issue for the brain contributing to its damage by putting a lot of pressure on it. Try to relax more by improving your sleep cycle, resting as and when required, and not overworking yourself.
Aromatherapy: Essential oils have been shown to work wonders, by reducing stress and relaxing the mind. Lavender, rosemary, lemon and even orange are some great options you can try out. These oils can help rejuvenate damaged brain and nerve cells.
Meditation: Studies have shown that regular meditation helps boost grey matter in the brain, and along with yoga, keeps the minds and bodies of middle-aged people active and better focused contributing to the overall health of the brain.

Life Hacks! How To Beat Alzheimer's

One of the worst neurological disorders to have is dementia. It is a general term used to describe cognitive decline of the brain. It s not specific disease but denotes several brain disorders and mental illnesses. A person suffering from dementia can have severe impairment in judgment, loss of memory and thinking. Dementia is a very difficult disease not only for the patient but also for their families and caregivers. 

Some facts about dementia are as follows:

It s not a mental disorder occurring in old age but it does degenerates with age.
An estimation of 47.5 million people worldwide suffers from dementia and 60% of these people live in low and middle-income countries and according to WHO this figure is likely to increase.
Every 4 seconds a new case of dementia is reported
Dementia is a collective term to describe the many types of in people, such as 

Alzheimer s Disease: It is one of the most common type of dementia accounting for 60-80% of dementia case. People suffering from Alzheimer s have fewer nerve cells and the size of the brain shrinks.
Vascular Dementia: Another most common form of dementia occurring after a stroke.
Lewy Body Dementia: It is neurodegenerative condition that involves a protein called alpha-synuclein which changes the brain. Symptoms may be similar to Parkinson s disease.
Symptoms of dementia can range from mild to moderate to severe that includes:

Memory Loss
Disorientation meaning inability to focus or pay attention
Changes in visual perception
Impairment in reasoning and judgment
Dementia can be caused by damage to brain cells or progressive brain cell death. As a result communication between brain cells become difficult. Other symptoms include:

Stroke
Brain Tumor
Head Injury
Prion Disease
HIV Infection
Reversible Factors

There are no definite tests for dementia. Doctors and neurologists have to medical history, blood tests and CT scans to find out whether a person has dementia or not. However, the most potent evaluation comes from a set of questions that are asked to a patient suspected of having dementia. The ability to answer those questions correctly is one of the best diagnoses for dementia.
There is no specific treatment for dementia as it is not a curable disease and degenerates with time. However, medicines or drugs given for Alzheimer s can be given to people suffering from dementia.
Although results vary depending upon a person s lifestyle s and habits, doctors suggest eating healthy, exercising regularly, and stopping smoking and drinking may prevent some types of dementia.
The best treatment for dementia is to treat the person with care and love so that they don t feel neglected.
Dementia is often associated with old age but that is not always true. It is important to gain knowledge and educate others also.

Dementia - Quick Facts You Must Know About It!

Dementia is a general classification of a brain disease that causes a long haul and frequently steady abatement in the capacity to think and recall that is sufficiently incredible to influence a man's everyday  functioning. Other normal manifestations incorporate passionate issues, issues with dialect, and a lessening in motivation. An individual's awareness is not influenced. The most common example of dementia is the Alzheimer's disease.

Physiotherapy for Dementia:
A patient with dementia can benefit from physiotherapy regardless of the possibility that the patient can't perceive their own family. Physiotherapy, notwithstanding, can be of good advantage to the individual who has dementia and also their family and parental figures at different stages. The principle explanation behind this is that recovery administrations can help the dementia patient to be as utilitarian as would be prudent for whatever length of time that is conceivable. Here are 5 ways physiotherapy benefits an Alzheimer's patient:

Physiotherapy can keep up the Alzheimer's patient's freedom and mobility as much as one could expect reasonably. A physiotherapist can outline a home activity program and work intimately with relatives to administer to the Alzheimer's patient.
Physiotherapists, as independent experts, embrace much detailed, separately custom-made appraisals of the disorders, action confinements and restrictions imposed upon individuals with dementia.
The caretakers of individuals with dementia regularly show weakness when contrasted with their same aged companions. Physiotherapy helps with diminishing the weight of consideration by instructing caregivers to provide encouragement and upliftment to individuals with dementia.
Patients with dementia are always at a risk of falling down and hurting themselves. Poor balance accounts for the danger of falls. This can be worked upon and improved by physiotherapy driven exercises. Exercise can have a huge and positive effect on behavioral and mental indications of dementia, enhancing psychological capacity and mindset, which can decrease the doses of strong medicines. Special exercise routines are assigned to the patients which help improve their body balance while walking.    
Physiotherapy has crucial influence in advancing and keeping up portability of individuals with dementia. It assumes a basic part in the end of life consideration by overseeing situations, seating and complicated muscle contracture. Individuals with dementia regularly experience issues in communicating pain. Pain influences cognizance, inspiration and reaction to any intervention. Physiotherapists are specialists in recognizing and treating pain in dementia patients and give training to care home staff and caregivers of the patients.
Physiotherapy is very important for dementia patients. Regular physiotherapy sessions are beneficial for patients for improvement in condition.

5 Ways Physiotherapy Helps in Dementia

With age, most body organs begin to deteriorate in their function. This happens to the brain also, thereby reducing the overall speed of functioning of most organs. While slowing of bodily movement is visible, the internal organs functioning also slows down, which is not that obvious. Memory loss or dementia is one of the main manifestations of this degeneration of the brain.

Alzheimer s is the most common form of dementia, and the associated symptoms includes reduced reasoning abilities and cognitive defects. Though it is seen only in the elderly, not all elderly people will have Alzheimer s. The overall quality of life of the affected person is reduced with difficulty remembering things that were recently learned. It is a progressive disease and as it gets more severe, a full-time caretaker may be required.

Causes: The brain cells are affected by protein masses known as plaques and tangles. These hamper the way communication between the brain cells happens as well as affect nutrition from reaching all parts of the brain. This leads to shrinking of the brain, eventually leading to memory loss and other problems. There is also a strong genetic linkage, as most people with Alzheimer s have the lipoprotein A gene.

Symptoms: Though memory loss is the most common symptom, there are other symptoms:

Being confused about places, people, and times
Inability to find the right words during conversations
Regular objects are misplaced
Becoming irritable, (in someone who was not so previously)
Mood swings
Personality changes
Inability to organise thoughts
Not able to make the right decisions
Repetitive talks and actions
Forgetfulness (not something the person always does)
Difficulty with numbers (again, not something calculations
Difficulty managing everyday tasks and minor problems
Suspicion of others (like immediate family members and friends)
Risk factors: While age is definitely a risk factor, the fact that not all aged people develop Alzheimer s is to be borne in mind. Other risk factors include the history of stroke, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity, and poor lifestyle choices.

Diagnosis: While there is no definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer s, symptoms along with brain scans and neuropsychological function testing are useful ways to confirm the diagnosis.

Treatment: This is aimed at two things reducing the rate of disease progression and treat (or reverse) symptoms if possible.

Cholinesterase inhibitors improve cellular communication in the brain and also manage depression and agitation. Memantine is used to slow the pace of disease progression.
In people with the disease, small changes are useful to help them with the symptoms. These include keeping essential things like keys and wallet in the same place, keep a daily diary to help them remember things, keep pictures of friends and family within visible distance.

Alzheimer's - An Overview!

With age, just like other body functions, the mind too begins to slow down. This could lead to problems in communication, focus, recall, reasoning, and thinking. So with dementia, the person faces problems which are a combination of above-mentioned activities. Dementia is a symptom associated with many diseases and is not a disease on its own.

Alzheimer s is the main cause of dementia, followed by stroke or brain injury, Huntington s disease, and Lewy body disease. However, there are some symptoms that can be indicative that a person is gradually progressing into dementia. Watching out for these symptoms can help one seek help at an early stage, thereby helping the affected person, and slowing down its progress.

Short term memory loss: With age, people tend to forget what happened recently, and this can even be something as recent as the previous day. However, they can very clearly recollect events from the past. They might forget things like where they have placed their glasses, where the television remote control is, etc. They may also ask for the same information repeatedly, even after it is answered.
Mood changes: Rapid mood swings is observed in a person suffering from dementia. Their emotions keep changing within a matter of seconds, and they may show also less emotion than what they used to show previously.
Personality changes: Since dementia affects reasoning and judgment, someone who was earlier shy could suddenly become outgoing. Their inhibitions which led to a shy personality are lost, making them more outgoing.
Difficulty in performing regular tasks: Be it forgetting things like laying out tables, keeping things back in their places, or organising medical kits, with dementia setting in, these tasks slowly become more difficult to do. Also, learning new tasks, even simple ones, seem tough and are often not accomplished.
Losing storylines: The elderly would usually be good with telling and appreciating stories like telling tales to their grandchildren or following television soaps and stories. However, as dementia begins to set in, they tend to lose storylines, both when observing and telling.
Repeating actions: As they are not able to register things, they tend to repeat things, both in words and in actions.
Feeling lost: Things like heading out to a store to buy something and then wondering why they came there are common. Short-term memory loss can cause such situations. This confusion, especially with regard to time and things, is very common.
Spatial and time orientation: There could be problems relating to space and time, seasons, and they may often ask questions like what time it is, etc. Routine tasks like paying bills, cooking using recipe books, which were easily managed, suddenly begin to look difficult.
Apathy: Losing interest in people, hobbies, or other things like puzzles, which they once enjoyed, become boring and unenjoyable.

9 Early Symptoms of Dementia!

World Alzheimer s Day is celebrated on the 21st of September each year. A number of organizations, from all over the world concentrate on raising the awareness about Alzheimer s disease and dementia. Alzheimer s disease is a very common type of dementia. It falls under the group of disorders in which mental functioning gets impaired. Life for an Alzheimer s patients is quite difficult, but by following the following tips, you can support yourself and will also help you to cope with it. 

You have to accept the changes and accept that life will continue getting difficult. Instead of trying to cover your difficulties for protection from embarrassment, you should face the fact. You also have to accept the changes in your physical abilities and adapt to skills, which are beneficial.
You should develop some ideal coping strategies. Try to be occupied and involved and respond to the challenges you face in everyday life. By practicing the coping skills you will be able to gain a sense of control in your life.
Try to identify stuff. Make a list of all the tasks which seem challenging to you and try to develop coping strategies for these tasks. Prioritize your tasks and determine whether it is really necessary to overcome certain tasks. You should also strategize solutions and come up with solutions which would suit you best.
You should set realistic goals and expectations for yourself and use the coping skills to deal with difficult tasks. In case of very challenging tasks, do not hesitate to take help.
A daily routine or plan is required for keeping a track of several tasks. A schedule reduces the amount of time you spend to figure out something, simplifying your task and also prevents mistakes.
Always approach one task at a time and take enough time to complete tasks. Do not give up on challenging tasks and take breaks to figure things out.
Always remember that you have more than a single chance to solve problems. If one chance fails, you should adopt new strategies and try again and again with better assessment.
You should identify the triggers which cause anxiety and stress. Knowing the causes will allow you to plan in advance so that you can prevent them.
Keep in mind that your family, friends, pets, will power and prayers are sources of great strength and will help you get past any obstacle.
You should accept help from others and do not hesitate or think about being dependent on others.
You should take the advice from your psychiatrist or from Alzheimer Association National Early-Stage Advisors in order to understand the challenges such as medications, management of schedules and dealing with emotional or relationship changes.

Alzheimer's - 10 Tips to Help Dementia Patients Cope with their Problem

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