Dementia
Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously
affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities.
There are several kinds of dementia.
Alzheimer's disease (AD, also called senile dementia) is the
most common form of it among older people. It involves the parts
of the brain that control thought, memory and language.
Approximately 4.5 million Americans have this disease.
AD usually begins after age 60, and risk
goes up with age. About 3 percent of men and women ages 65 to 74
have AD, and nearly half of those age 85 and older may have the
disease. It is important to note, however, that AD is not
a normal part of aging.
The course the disease takes and how fast
changes occur vary from person to person. On an average, AD
patients live from 8 to 10 years after they are diagnosed,
though the disease can last for as many as 20 years.
AD begins slowly. At first, the only
symptom may be mild forgetfulness. People with AD may have
trouble remembering recent events, activities, or the names of
familiar people or things. Simple math problems may become hard
to solve. Such difficulties may be a bother, but usually they
are not serious enough to cause alarm. However, as the disease
goes on, symptoms are more easily noticed and become serious
enough to cause people with AD or their family members to seek
medical help. For example, people in the later stages of AD may
forget how to do simple tasks, like brushing their teeth or
combing their hair. They can no longer think clearly. They begin
to have problems speaking, understanding, reading, or writing.
Later on, people with AD may become anxious or aggressive, or
wander away from home. Eventually, patients need total care.
Today, the only definite way to diagnose AD
is to find out whether there are plaques and tangles in brain
tissue.
To look at brain tissue, doctors must wait
until they do an autopsy, which is an examination of the body
done after a person dies. Therefore, doctors must make a
diagnosis of "possible" or "probable" AD.
Treatment by conventional medicine
No treatment can stop AD with conventional
medicine.
However,
for some people in the early and middle stages of the disease,
the drugs tacrine (Cognex), donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine
(Exelon), or galantamine (Reminyl) may help prevent some
symptoms from becoming worse for a limited time. Also, some
medicines may help control behavioral symptoms of AD such as
sleeplessness, agitation, wandering, anxiety, and depression.
Treating these symptoms often makes patients more comfortable
and makes their care easier for caregivers.
The fifth approved medication, known as
Namenda® (memantine), is an N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA)
antagonist. It is prescribed for the treatment of moderate to
severe AD. Studies have shown that the main effect of Namenda®
is to delay progression of some of the symptoms of moderate to
severe AD. The medication may allow patients to maintain certain
daily functions a little longer. For example, Namenda® may help
a patient in the later stages of AD maintain his or her ability
to go to the bathroom independently for several more months, a
benefit for both patients and caregivers.
(Data source:
http://www.alzheimers.org/, cited Feb.24, 2004)
How dementia treatment by Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM)
In TCM, dementia is treated with Chinese
herbal therapy and/or acupuncture.
Herbal therapy
TCM believes dementia is caused by
emotional disorders which affect the function of liver, kidney,
spleen and heart systems[1].
The functional disorders of these systems eventually cause
accumulation of phlegm[2]
and stagnation of blood in the brain. Based on this theory,
Chinese doctors use herbs or acupuncture to correct the
functional disorders, clean the pathological “phlegm” and
promote blood circulation in the brain.
In one study, 53 senile dementia patients
were treated with herbal therapy (treatment group), and another
51 patients were treated with Nimodipine. The herbal therapy
dramatically improved the clinic symptoms in 40% patients in the
herbal treatment group, while there is only 25% of patients in
the control group were dramatically improved. (Data source: Shanxi Journal of TCM 2003;23(8):703-704).
Hierarchic Dementia Scale (HDS) is a
measure of cognitive function of people. It is reduced in
patients with dementia. After the herbal therapy, the average
HDS increased from 16.36 to 25.36, while it increased from 17.34
to only 20.67 in the control group.
More reports on the efficiency of herbal
therapy on senile dementia:
Hydergine is reported having no vaso-constrictive
effects. This agent enhances the sensitivity of neural
receptors. It has been labeled by the FDA for use in treating
the symptoms of an idiopathic decline in mental capacity not
related to a potentially reversible condition.
Clinic study in comparison between herbal
therapy and hydergine suggests that herbal therapy may give more
benefit to patients with senile dementia:
Various herbal formula are available for
the treatment of senile dementia. The clinic effects of the
herbal therapies are variable but the overall effect is
encouraging.
Suggestions
(1). So far, TCM is the best choice for the
treatment of dementia. Try TCM first before trying any
conventional medicine for the treatment. Detailed diagnosis of
the types of dementia with conventional medicine does not mean
promising healing hope.
(2). Herbal therapy is the most effective
means for the treatment of dementia, though additional
acupuncture or other TCM therapies will in deed speed up the
healing process.
(3). The aim of the treatment is to much
improve the clinic manifestations of patients, so that he/she
could handle his/her daily life without extensive help from
others. Cure is hard goal[3].
[1] Here we means the
organ systems, not just the organ. It bears different
meaning from conventional medicine!
[2] Phlegm here is a
broad concept in TCM. It not only means the phlegm that
you cough out of you lung. In TCM, phlegm is a kind of
pathological mass that can move and go within the body
anyway causing various disorders.
[3] There is one
clinic report using a herbal pill for the treatment of
dementia that yielded complete cure of all patients
(n=12). The herb pill has been taken continuously for 3
to 5 months.
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