Greetings Steemers, today I got up with the idea to investigate about Alzheimer's disease, understand what its causes are and write something about it. A degenerative disease that affects a large part of the population, especially the elderly, greatly affects the quality of life of the people who suffer and their relatives, so it is a rather serious disorder.
What is Alzheimer's?
Alzheimer's is a disease that affects the brain, is also considered neurodegenerative because it causes an increase in the mortality of cells, thus reducing the total number of neurons, causing drastic changes in the behavior of the individual. Alzheimer's is known as the most common form of dementia, the most frequent problems that this causes is the loss of memory as well as other mental abilities, all due to the atrophy of different areas of the brain and the death of neuronal cells . Alzheimer's, as I said before is a degenerative disease, so over time this gradually worsens, reaching the point where those affected do not even recognize their closest relatives or friends. They also often forget about very basic and routine activities. Some additional symptoms are confusion, and trouble speaking, reading or writing well, and on some occasions these people often wander away from their homes so they end up lost.
Factors that can lead to the development of the disease
The "causes" of the disease to this moment are unknown, however, there are certain factors which, when correlated, give rise to the disease. These factors are:
Age
As a person gets older, the risk of Alzheimer's becomes greater. After a person has passed the age of 60 the probability is quite high, however, this does not mean that every elderly person will suffer from Alzheimer's, it is believed that Alzheimer's is a common phase of aging, this is incorrect, this disease isn’t normal in an elderly person.
Genetics
It is more likely (up to 3 times more likely) that a person suffer Alzheimer’s if a direct relative has or has had the disease, especially the Early-Onset Alzheimer's (this one usually occurs between 50 and 60, but can also occur between 30 and 40).
Gender
Women have an increased risk of suffering the disease simply because they have a longer life expectancy than men.
Cerebral Injuries
Injuries to the brain area during youth are strongly related to the development of Alzheimer's, it is also believed that cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases can increase the possibility of developing Alzheimer. Also there exist other factors that possibly increase the risk of suffering from Alzheimer, between them there are the diet, the stress, the environment, between others.
Tips for Preventing or Dealing with Alzheimer's
- Encourage cognitive activity, motivating the person to read, practice intellectual games, and solve puzzles, crosswords, among others
- It is recommended to exercise at least 2 or 3 hours a week
- Consume healthy food and possibly avoid unhealthy food consumption
Thank you very much if you have come here, I hope you liked the content; you can leave me a vote if so. You can also leave me a comment with your opinion about the post content or give me a suggestion on how I could do better in the next ones :)
References
- http://www.alz.org/espanol/about/que_es_la_enfermedad_de_alzheimer.asp
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfermedad_de_Alzheimer
- https://medlineplus.gov/spanish/alzheimersdisease.html
(Note that the information of these websites it is on Spanish, I did the traslation for the info that I used on this post)