Alzheimer and Dementia Discussion

Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: Contributing Factors, Steps for Prevention/ Health Promotion for the Family

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects persons with old age. It is marked by cognitive impairment and memory decline and is the most common cause of dementia. About 10% of people over the age of 65 years suffer from Alzheimer’s dementia, with 5.5 million Americans confirmed with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia. Persons with Alzheimer’s dementia experience problems with speech, behavior, movement, and spatial orientation amongst others. The collection of symptoms (syndrome) that includes problems with speech and language, memory, cognition, and inability to perform activities of daily living are what are collectively known as dementia (Fazio et al., 2018; Sadock et al., 2015). Alzheimer and Dementia Discussion

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            The contributing factors to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia include genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors. That means that the condition can be inherited from parents and even transmitted to offspring. It is these same genetic factors that interact with suitable environmental triggers to produce the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease including dementia as a syndrome (Sadock et al., 2015).Alzheimer and Dementia Discussion

Steps for Prevention/ Health Promotion

In order to mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia as well as prevent its early onset and progression, the following measures may help:

• Engaging the patient in intellectually stimulating activities
• Keeping them physically active
• Allowing them adequate sleep and rest
• Avoid medications that might interfere with cognitive health and use alternatives (Kelley et al., 2018).

Together with other measures, the steps above can go a long way in reducing the level of morbidity caused by Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Definitely, the family also requires psychoeducation and counseling to enable them cope with having a relative with the condition. Carers also need to be educated on the best way to assist the patient with their activities of daily living at home.

References

Fazio, S., Pace, D., Maslow, K., Zimmerman, S., & Kallmyer, B. (2018). Alzheimer’s association dementia care practice recommendations. The Gerontologist, 58(S1), S1-S9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnx182

Kelley, M., Ulin, B., & McGuire, L.C. (2018). Reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and maintaining brain health in an aging society. Public Health Reports, 133(3), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354918763599

Sadock, B.J., Sadock, V.A., & Ruiz, P. (2015). Synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences clinical psychiatry, 11^th ed. Wolters Kluwer. Alzheimer and Dementia Discussion