How to improve the quality of life for people with Alzheimer's disease

What is Alzheimer's disease?

This condition is a progressive mental deterioration that may occur in middle or old age, owing to generalized degeneration of the brain. It is a chronic neuro-degenerative disease and in many cases it may result in dementia. A common symptom is trouble remembering recent events (short-term memory loss). As the condition advances symptoms may include mood swings, loss of motivation, not being able to care for one self, behavioural issues and language problems.

About 44 million worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's or a related dementia yet only 1-in-4 people with Alzheimer's disease have been diagnosed.

What are the signs of Alzheimer's condition?

One of the most habitual signs of Alzheimer's is memory loss, mostly information that was learned recently. Other symptoms may be forgetting important events and dates. The affected person may ask for the same information over and over and increasingly start relying on memory aids or family members for things they could handle on their own before.

They may have challenges when it comes to planning and solving problems like keeping track of regular monthly bills. Concentration may also become an issue and ordinary tasks may take longer than before.

Alzheimer's patients may:

-Lose track of time, dates and seasons.

-Have trouble understanding something if it is not happening immediately. They may even forget why they are in a place and how they got there.

-Experience problems with the understanding of spatial relationships and visual images. They could have difficulty reading, making the right judgements with distance and determining colours. This indeed may have in turn a negative impact when driving for example.

-Have speaking and writing impairment. Alzheimer's patients can exhibit problems in conversations. Could be that they stop mid-sentence and do not know how to continue or even have trouble finding the right words at the right time.

-Misplace items. Sometimes they may put things in unusual places and not e able to retrace their steps, often thinking that someone took them.

-Have a decrease in general hygiene.

-Have a change in mood and personality as well as staying away from social activities may occur. Therefore they feel the need to stay in their comfort zone

How does Alzheimers affect patients and carers?

An Alzheimers diagnosis can turn the lives of the person affected and family (carers) upside down.

They will feel vulnerable and will need regular or constant care and support which could be overwhelming.

The situation therefore requires a lot of adjustments, acceptance and awareness to help make life for them easier and more enjoyable.

Alzheimers' disease with time will bring about the shrinking of the brain which will in turn affect a lot of the body functions. As a result the affected member may have changes in personality and abilities which will affect the relationships with his entourage. This is hard for the family to face for sure and the best thing is to try and find ways to give them a good quality of life.

The carers will have to show a lot of flexibility as a person with Alzheimer's disease may get agitated when simple tasks become challenging. Here's what you can do to ease this situation.

Make routines so that the person affected can have some guidelines to follow and not feel like they are always doing something new which may be taxing for them. However, allow some flexibility for spontaneity.

Involve them in activities, for example you might lay out their clothes in the right order and let them try to dress on their own. You may also give them choices and propose outfits and let them pick! Or give them a choice of activities and let them choose what they prefer, take a walk, watch a movie, go for an ice-cream etc...

Be patient as day to day activities may take longer than usual and they should not feel rushed. When giving instructions, keep them clear and simple. And when communicating with Alzheimer's patients try to eliminate distractions like TV so that they can focus.

How can Alzheimer symptoms be relieved?

Right now, there is no cure for Alzheimer's. However drug and non-drug treatments could help with both cognitive and behavioural symptoms.

Researchers are relentlessly looking for new treatments to alter the course of the disease and improve the quality of life for people affected.

Medications are usually prescribed for Alzheimer’s disease. These drugs can help delay or stop symptoms from worsening for a limited period of time and could help control some behavioural symptoms.

Research shows that these medications prevent the deterioration of acetylcholine, a chemical in the brain believed to be vital for thinking and memory.

New research points towards CBD’s potential therapeutic properties for Alzheimer’s disease. It suggests that the compound could be beneficial for treating Alzheimer's, the neurodegenerative disease. Therefore this is a natural remedy that could help Alzheimer's patients get some relief.

CBD has been implicated in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuro-protective effects. However because of the irreversible nature of the disease’s progression, real breakthroughs are hard to make.

However CBD oil may help improve the quality of life of Alzheimer's patients as it is said to help improve social recognition when testing on mice with Alzheimer’s.

A positive point about natural CBD oil is that it is safe for human use without having the side effects of conventional drugs.

A growing number of patients are resorting to herbal remedies, dietary supplements and change of diet to help delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms like Caprylic acid and coconut oil, Coenzyme Q10, Gingko biloba etc.

Science is progressing and research is being carried out to find a cure for Alzheimer's. Although medical research requires high budgets and the work is challenging, we hope that there will be a break-through and that in the near future a treatment will be discovered. Researchers are currently testing some treatments that may be ground breaking. In the mean time we should use whatever means we have to keep anyone affected by this condition comfortable.