Alzheimer's And Parkinson’s Diseases

With the development of aging in society, the incidence of senile psychosis is getting higher and higher: mainly manifested in population of both common elderly diseases: Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s rising. In 2015, 8.5% of the world's population was over 65 years old, and by 2050, it will jump to nearly 17% of the global population. However, in 2016, 61 million people worldwide suffered from Parkinson's disease, and it is estimated that the population of Alzheimer's patients will reach 115.4 million in 2050. Additionally, both Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s disease is incurable mental illness that drugs and others treatment just only can reduce the worsening progression, and both disease have not yet been fully understanding of their causing factors. Fortunately, the best treatment that everyone can do it is giving the elderly understanding and companionship.

Relationship between mental illness and aging

The simplest answer to the aging of living organisms is that living organisms (such as the human body) are like a very complicated and sophisticated machine. The machine takes a long time and always causes wear and tear, exposing a variety of problems. The same is true for people, whether they are organs or cells, the molecules inside are gradually damaged, the waste is constantly accumulating, and finally there is always a loss of function. According to a report, the global population reached 7 billion in 2012, the population aged 65 and over was 562 million (8.0%); In 2015, 8.5% of the world's population was over 65 years old, and by 2050, it will jump to nearly 17% of the global population (Kowal, Goodkind, & He, 2016). Normal aging is unstoppable and is the procedure of reduction of various psychological functions. However, in the normal aging population, patients of senile psychosis have a variety of psychological activities in a state of confusion, and intelligence is obviously impaired. Senile psychosis can lead to sudden changes in behavior, self-injury, impulsive, no self-awareness and other mental symptoms. The cause of senile psychosis is due to cerebral arteriosclerosis, cerebral ischemia, hypoxia and metabolic disorders, causing brain tissue atrophy, mental decline, personality changes and mental disorders; among senile psychosis, senile dementia and arteriosclerotic mental disorders are more common (Eizaguirre, Rementeria, González-Torres &, Gaviria, 2017). The main points of treatment for senile psychosis are not taking medication and life conditioning, but more importantly, need to be patiently cared for by relatives around them. With the development of aging in society, the incidence of senile psychosis is getting higher and higher: mainly manifested in population of both common elderly diseases: Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s rising.

Alzheimer's disease

It is estimated that the population of people over the age of 60 will reach 2 billion in 2050, accounting for 22% of the global population; after the age of 65, the prevalence rate is doubled every five years, and data on prevalence and morbidity predict that the number of people with dementia worldwide will continue to increase: In 2001, there were 24.3 million people over the age of 60 with Alzheimer; the total number of Alzheimer patients worldwide in 2010 was approximately 35.6 million; Alzheimer's patients will reach 65.7 million in 2030; In 2040, the number of patients will reach 81.1 million; In 2050, it reached 115.4 million; The number of new Alzheimer patients is close to 7.7 million per year, that is, a new dementia patient appears every 4 seconds (World Health Organization and Alzheimer's Disease International, 2012).¬¬

Alzheimer's cause：Genetic factors

Scientists have not yet to fully understand the causes of Alzheimer's disease. However, with the increasing understanding of the disease, we have found that genes are becoming more and more important in this disease. Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain and mental disease. Alzheimer's disease can be divided into two types: early-onset Alzheimer's disease and late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Both are related to genes. Early-onset Alzheimer's disease is quite rare, accounting for only a minority of Alzheimer's patients, mainly between the ages of 30-60. One of the mutant genes is passed on to one of the parents, and the next generation will almost certainly develop early-onset Alzheimer's disease. If one of the parents is familial Alzheimer's, the chance of getting the disease in the next generation is as high as 50% （Jarvik et al., 2008）. Late-onset Alzheimer's disease, the vast majority of Alzheimer's disease is a late-onset, occurring after the age of 60. Late-onset Alzheimer's disease has not yet found a specific pathogenic gene, but studies have shown that APOE ε4 increases the risk of illness. APOE ε4 can be detected in patients with late-onset Alzheimer's disease; those with inheritance of one or two APOE ε4 dual genes have earlier disease progression than those without (Bird, 2008).

Alzheimer's cause：β-amyloid（also Environmental factors and behavior factors）

Scientists have long believed that β-amyloid has a highly toxic effect on brain synapses and is one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease. The reason is that β-amyloid causes blockage and damage to synaptic transmission. Some recent studies have shown that Alzheimer's disease is actually a self-protective response mechanism of the brain, and β-amyloid is actually protective. The true cause is that the body's function is weakened with aging, the decreasing of resistance to inflammatory infections, the lack of supporting nutrient factors for synapses, and the long-term accumulation and exposure of toxic substances trigger the brain's self-protective reaction mechanism to synthesize β- amyloid (Bredesen, 2017a).

Alzheimer's disease is not a single disease, but a disease that is complex and combined with multiple causes and diseases. Like vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive decline, all of the above diseases are closely related to Alzheimer's disease (Karantzoulis & Galvin, 2011a).

Alzheimer's syndrome

In patients with Alzheimer's disease, the symptoms of each patient are different. However, the symptoms of patients with Alzheimer's disease can be generally concluded as follows: prosopagnosia, patients with Alzheimer's disease lose the ability to recognize or remember faces; patients with Alzheimer's disease found their own spirit and vitality Significantly decline; loss of interest in reading: patients with Alzheimer's disease found themselves losing the ability to understand and participate in complex conversations; patients with Alzheimer's disease found themselves decreased the ability of reaction; vocabulary decline and word confusion, patients with Alzheimer's disease found themselves the speed at which the information processing was reduced (Bredesen, 2017b). Because the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are similar or overlapping with the symptoms of other elderly diseases, and the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in the elderly will change with the severity of Alzheimer's disease, under such circumstances, doctors have difficulties in diagnosing between patients with Alzheimer's disease or patients with other elderly diseases, which also causes the difficulties to judge the cause of the Alzheimer's disease (Karantzoulis & Galvin, 2011b).

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Alzheimer's treatment

Medically, Alzheimer's disease is still considered to be a disease. Therefore, it is usually treated with donepezil or memantine hydrochloride. However, the pathological problem of Alzheimer's disease cannot be fundamentally solved, nor can it be prevented from worsening, and the disease cannot be cured. Until now, there is no drug for treating Alzheimer's disease. The disease will continue to develop even after took the drug. Over time, the brain limits the efficacy of the drug, which the drug will become useless eventually；There are also side effects of the drug, including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and the drug itself may also become a lure of cognitive decline and thus aggravate the condition (Schneider et al., 2014).

Parkinson's disease

Nervous system diseases are the world's leading source of disability, and Parkinson's disease is the fastest growing disease among these diseases. Parkinson's disease is a common degenerative disease of the nervous system. It is more common in the elderly. The average age of onset is about 60 years old. Parkinson's disease is rare in young people under 50 years of age. The number of people with Parkinson's disease in 1990 was 25 million; In 2016, 61 million people worldwide suffered from Parkinson's disease, of which 29 million were women and 32 million were men, and the incidence of men with Parkinson's disease is 1 to 4 times that of women (GBD 2016 Parkinson's Disease Collaborators, 2018).

Parkinson's cause：Environmental factors and behavior factors

The exact cause of Parkinson's disease is still unknown. Genetic factors, environmental factors, behavior factors and ageing are all considered as potential causes. Neurodegenerative diseases, especially Parkinson's disease, may be affected by the environment and daily activities. Scientists have identified a number of environmental risk factors, including pesticides, solvents, and PCBs associated with increased risk of Parkinson's disease. Behavioral and lifestyle factors such as smoking: longer smoking times or more cigarette smoking are associated with lower Parkinson's disease risk, and caffeine intake is Often associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease: the risk of drinking high coffee for men is reduced by nearly 60% (Obeso et al, 2017).

Parkinson's cause：Genetic factors

Young onset Parkinson’s disease refers to people with Parkinson’s disease before they are 40, and later onset Parkinson’s disease is referred to the patient with Parkinson’s disease after 50 or 60. Genetic causes for young onset Parkinson’s disease have been implicated; it appears genetics may play a greater role in the development of Parkinson’s disease in those with young onset. scientist have found six genes that can cause Parkinson’s disease when mutated: SNCA, LRRK2, Parkin, PINK1, DJ-1, and ATP13A2; SNCA and LRRK2 are responsible for autosomal-dominant PD forms; thus far the two most common genetic causes of Parkinson’s disease are mutation of Parkin and LRRK2; though these are still relatively rare, Parkin mutation appears to be responsible for 20% of young onset Parkinson’s disease where patients have a strong family history of disease and onset occurs below age 30; mutation of LRRK2 seems to be responsible for approximately 2% of typical late onset Parkinson’s disease (Klein & Westenberger, 2012).

Parkinson's syndrome

In 1817, British doctor James Parkinson first described the disease in detail; his clinical manifestations include resting tremor, bradykinesia, myotonia and posture gait disorder; Patients can also be accompanied by depression, constipation, and sleep disorders symptom; the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease depends mainly on medical history, clinical symptoms and signs (Goetz，2011). Sleep disorders are one of the most common manifestations of Parkinson's disease, and patients often feel tired and weak. Patients often want to sleep but can't sleep. Although sleep disorders of Parkinson's disease have most of the same characteristics as sleep disorders in the general population, in diagnosis: insomnia, daytime Excessive lethargy, restless leg syndrome and periodic limb movement, REM sleep behavior disorder, sleep-disordered breathing, and symptoms of circadian rhythm disorders can be diagnosed with the potential manifestations of Parkinson's disease (Chahine, Amara, & Videnovic, 2017).

Decreased cognitive ability in Parkinson's patients is one of the most obvious symptoms. 20–50% of patients with Parkinson's disease are diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment; cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease often affect executive function, attention, visual spatial function, and processing speed; however, older people show differences in cognitive test performance, especially in response time testing and distraction and working memory testing (Goldman et al, 2018).

Parkinson's treatment

Drug treatment is the most important treatment for Parkinson's disease. Surgical treatment is an effective supplement to medication. Rehabilitation, psychotherapy and good care can also improve symptoms to some extent. The current treatments are mainly to improve symptoms, but still can not prevent the progression of the disease. Levodopa is still the most effective drug. However, using medication means you can never stop taking it. Patients who discontinue the drug can cause dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome (DAWS); the symptoms of DAWS are similar to those of withdrawal from other psychostimulants; they may include anxiety, panic disorder, social phobia, square phobia, fatigue, Irritable, restless, depressed, eager for drugs and suicide (Samuel et al, 2015).

Conclusion

The inevitable global population aging, irreversible procedure of growing old and incurable mental illness like Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s disease in the elderly, and as aging elderly people are more likely to suffer from mental illness are natural law and the problem needed to confront. Faced with the laws of nature and power, the science and power of mankind are very small. Fortunately, we have better ways and means. People are emotional animals; we will take care of the elderly. After reading so many research papers and books, I know that medical treatment is very important. But more important is to give the elderly understanding and companionship. It is necessary to have patience to take care of the inconvenience of the elderly. Patients with Parkinson's disease may be inconvenient in some way. It is best to let people stay with them without any omissions. However, as a family member, you must maintain an optimistic attitude, face a patient's mentality, and pay more attention to the patient, because at this time the patient is most afraid of seeing the family members' sighs, most afraid of being left out.