World Alzheimer's Day | Don't let the elderly with Alzheimer's forget that the world has lost their home! Active treatment and comprehensive care, neither can be lost!

Alzheimer's disease, commonly known as senile dementia, is an "eraser" that ruthlessly deletes memories and emotions in the brain. In real life, it comes unnoticed - the elderly find that they can't find their home, often forget that there are dishes to be cooked in the pot and leave the fire on, and even forget their own names and family members... They themselves are unaware, as if they have become children overnight.

The "China Alzheimer's Disease Report 2021" shows that in 2019, the number of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in China was more than 13 million; the morbidity and mortality rates were slightly higher than the global average, and the relevant data for women were higher than those for men. Because the disease imposes a heavy burden on families and society, its research and prevention are of vital importance. Causes

The cause of Alzheimer's disease is relatively complex. Studies have found that the brain nerves of this group of patients are generally filled with senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles formed by the deposition of a large number of β-amyloid proteins outside the brain nerve cells. The most typical symptom is memory loss, followed by a decline in language comprehension and expression, followed by mental, emotional and behavioral symptoms. With aging, cognitive decline and physiological changes, patients experience communication difficulties, incoherent speech, and eventually lose the ability to express themselves.
Drug treatment

1 Cholinesterase inhibitors Acetylcholine is an important neurotransmitter, which is related to many advanced behaviors such as learning and memory. Examination of the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease will reveal that serious damage to the cholinergic system has occurred in their brains. It manifests as decreased discrimination ability and cognitive impairment, and the symptoms will be relieved by administering cholinesterase inhibitors. Therefore, restoring acetylcholine levels in the patient's brain has become a clinical strategy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The currently approved cholinesterase inhibitors donepezil, rivastigmine, and galantamine are the first-line clinical drugs for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. However, these drugs are only 50% effective in the long-term treatment of mild to moderate patients (treatment duration of more than 6 months), and the maintenance time after discontinuation is 1-1.5 years, and they cannot reverse the characteristics of the disease.

2 N-methylaspartate receptor antagonists Neuronal hyperactivity is a potential key feature of early Alzheimer's disease. The ligand-gated channel N-methylaspartate receptor (NMDAR) is a cation channel controlled by the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, which plays an important role in excitation transmission, synaptic integration, learning and memory. Memantine is a low-to-moderate affinity non-competitive NMDAR antagonist approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003 for the treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease to reduce the deterioration of clinical symptoms.

3 Drugs that reshape the balance of intestinal flora, such as sodium mannitol, can reduce peripheral amino acid metabolites, reduce brain neuroinflammation, improve cognitive function, and may have an improvement effect on mild cognitive impairment caused by AD (Chinese Expert Consensus on Diagnosis and Treatment of Mild Cognitive Impairment Caused by Alzheimer's Disease 2021). Nursing

Alzheimer's disease develops slowly and drug treatment is ineffective, which brings a heavy burden to society and families. We should pay attention to comprehensive nursing intervention to improve patients' quality of life and cognitive ability.
There are too many individual characteristics in Alzheimer's disease, which requires individualized comprehensive nursing intervention. Alzheimer's patients have decreased immunity and poor self-care ability. In nursing work, they need to prevent various infections, pay attention to opening windows for ventilation, changing bedding, etc. Develop specific intervention plans based on the patient's interests and hobbies, such as guiding the patient to move his limbs, communicating closely with him, encouraging him to read books and newspapers, and watching simple movies. In addition, a comfortable and quiet living environment should be created for the patient to ensure adequate sleep; patients should be encouraged to participate in outdoor physical exercise, such as health exercises for the elderly and square dancing.

The study confirmed that after a period of comprehensive nursing intervention, the cognitive function and living ability of Alzheimer's patients in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group.

This is a group of old people trapped in the long river of time. You may think they are just old, but in fact, they are sick. When familiar things and loved ones gradually fade away, memories become more precious, but their memories are fading away bit by bit. This is the cruelest thing... All we can do is to accompany and care for them for a long time. Hope and love are the last part of memory to disappear.