By Foo Ming Li
Our brain is the most vital part of the human organ as it controls every movement of our body, but as terrifying as it may sound, slowly losing our memories and the ability to control our body as time passes by due to Alzheimer’s Disease could affect our day-to-day life.
Gleneagles Hospital Neurologist, Dr Sim Bee Fung had been working in the hospital for more than 10 years and she is in-charge of consulting patients on brain related diseases including Alzheimer. She explains the disease slowly degrades the patients’ brain due to the group of nerve cells in it being damaged by Alzheimer causing them to be forgetful, have emotional changes, and cannot move their body muscles as it worsens.
She said doctors around the world are still minutely researching the cause of Alzheimer’s Disease by conducting a brain dissection of the deceased patients. The doctors found out that the spread of amyloid plaque and the tau protein from the temporal lobe can harm other parts of the brain.
“The doctors noticed when the condition of an Alzheimer’s Disease patient deteriorates, the tau protein can spread to the Wernicke’s Area of their brain causing them to have speech difficulty. In the last stage of the disease, the tau protein is spread to all parts of the brain and may cause patients to be immobile,” Sim explains.
Sim said the average age for people to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease is 65 years old and above, but people who are younger than the average age group are also at risk of being diagnosed with the brain disease.
“There is a study from doctors in the United States showing that chances for elders diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease are two out of 1000 people for the age group of 65 to 75 years old. The results for the age group of 75 to 85 years old, it increases to 11 out of 1000 people. For elders that are 85 years old and above, the chances are 37 out of 1000 person,” she said
She said the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease is memory loss which affects the short-term memory of the diagnosed individual. They have trouble remembering where they parked their vehicle in a multi-storey car park for a few hours or days, but they can remember situations that had happened a few years ago.
Currently, there is no medication to fully cure Alzheimer’s Disease, but there is some medication that can be taken to control the disease. The first type of prescribed medication is Exelon and Aricept that helps to strengthen the memory of the patient but not everyone can see the effectiveness of the medication.
“About 50 percent of patients have a better memory after taking the medication, while the others patients did not see any improvements on their memory,” she said.
Sim said when a patient is in the last stage of Alzheimer’s Disease, the patient needs a caretaker for the bedridden patient also needs to be assisted on a wheelchair. She advised the care giver must have and acquire patience when handling the patients as it is not an easy task.
She also encourages the children of parents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease to take care of them because the patients have better health when they are taken care in a familiar environment with people they have a close relationship with.
“There are cases where the families hire Indonesian maids to take care of their parents which will cause the parents to build a better bond with the maid and chances of forgetting their children is high, especially if they do not frequently visit the parents,” she advised.
As for the statistics of Alzheimer’s Disease in Malaysia, Sim said the disease cannot be easily surveyed as there are many conditions of the disease and it also requires doctors to observe the patient for a long time compared to other sickness like diabetes that can be easily measured.
In addition, she said people nowadays are more aware of the brain disease from the help of the internet and Google to search for information rather than seek professional advice.
To prevent oneself from being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, Sim said everyone should practise a healthy lifestyle of eating a balanced diet with food that is low in sugar and oil, stop smoking and drinking alcohol, and at least do some exercise for 30 minutes three times a week.
Another method of prevention is learning new things or having social interaction with others after retiring from our job. She said those actions will help to keep us using our brain to strengthen our brain muscles that slows down the chances of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.
“Our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir is a great example of having a practice to learn new things despite he is 95 years old. During the time when he was a university student, he does not have access to computers or the internet, now he is learning to use social media like twitter and Instagram to improve his brain muscles,” she said
Making documentary to enable the public have an understanding of Alzheimer’s Disease
Han Chiang University College of Communication (HCUC) Diploma in Broadcast Journalism final year student, Hoe Yi Wei said her production chose to do a documentary on Alzheimer’s Disease for her final year screening because there are many people with zero understanding about the disease.
“Many people have a stereotype view towards individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease that they do not know how to control their temper and act like a child,” she said
Besides that, she said the documentary enables people to understand different people will have different cases or symptoms of diagnosis with the disease.
After conducting the interview with Gleneagles Hospital, she learnt that being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease is more than a memory loss, it requires people to take care of the patients as they do not know how to differentiate between what is right or wrong in their daily life.
“Although my grandparents and parents are not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, I should take early precautions by doing activities and accompanying them more to prepare myself for the worse,” Hoe said.
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