Angeles Cruz Martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, September 19, 2022, p. 18
Altagracia is 78 years old, she was a nurse at an Issste hospital, she is retired and seven years ago she began to forget where some things were: her keys, her brush, sometimes she mistakes Pedro, her only son, for a brother, but almost immediately rectify, still. In the last four months she reduced her food consumption, because although they feed her, she prefers to suck on a lemon.
He thinks that’s eating and gets mad if I keep them
said Pedro, who takes care of his mother full time. He was working in a medical practice that he left in the middle of this year. I could no longer ask for permissions
to take care of his mom, as Alzheimer’s disease progresses. So far, according to the medical diagnosis, Altagracia has lost 30 percent of her brain mass.
This is Alzheimer’s and, although it was first described in 1906 by the German scientist Alois Alzheimer, no researcher has found a treatment to stop the damage to the central nervous system.
Marisol Valdés, a geriatrician, points out that there is an excessive accumulation of beta-amyloid and Tau proteins in the brain, which causes atrophy, decreased size and cognitive impairment. Under normal conditions, the brain weighs 1.4 kilograms, but in a person with Alzheimer’s it decreases to 800 grams.
One of the main risk factors for the condition is age. More than 15 million people over 60 years of age live in Mexico and official estimates indicate that around 1.5 million have dementia and, of this last figure, 80 percent suffer from Alzheimer’s.
On the occasion of World Disease Day, which is commemorated on September 21, the specialist commented in an interview that it has also been identified that Alzheimer’s shares risk factors with cardiovascular diseases, which are caused by diabetes, high blood pressure and dyslipidemia. . Therefore, the prevention, detection and control of these conditions influence the delay or the absence of mental deterioration.
In the brains of deceased people, protein accumulations have been found, but the disease did not manifest itself, which indicates that there is an additional factor that triggers the symptoms and has not yet been identified, said Regina Altena, president of the Mexican Alzheimer Center. Hence, help for those affected is focused on prevention and early detection.
The problem is that people and family members often underestimate the symptoms. Forgetfulness is not normal or typical of old age. Suddenly we can go somewhere in the house and not know why, but immediately it is remembered. That is acceptable, it is also true that the capacity and speed of learning decreases in older adults, but when they do not know where they left their belongings or forget what they had for breakfast, it is no longer normal
Valdes warned.
He stressed the importance of identifying early signs of dementia to take action, including some medications that slow the progress of the disease.
drug-free therapy
At the Mexican Alzheimer Center, families have at their disposal a multimodal therapy, without drugs, that stimulates motor, cognitive, social and daily life activity, in order to preserve mental functions in individuals with mild to moderate disease.
Before the covid-19 pandemic, the Center worked as a day stay, where patients with their caregivers could go to receive therapies. María de la Luz arrived there with her husband Anselmo, whom she has cared for for the last decade, although the illness began several years before. but we didn’t know what it was
.
Anselmo no longer gets up. He is in a wheelchair and the lady says that she still recognizes her, she tries to speak, but she cannot understand him. When I change his diaper, he stares at me and cries. It is exhausting
. After 50 years of marriage, María de la Luz’s goal is for Anselmo “to have a good quality of life as far as that is possible. If I leave before, I don’t know…, but I plan to reach the end”.
