Alzheimer's disease and Ayurveda

ALZHEIMER'S AND DEMENTIA BASICS

Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases.

First symptoms of Alzheimer’s vary from person to person. Memory problems are typically one of the first signs of cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer's disease. For many, decline in non-memory aspects of cognition, such as word-finding, vision/spatial issues, and impaired reasoning or judgment, may signal the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mild Alzheimer's disease

As the disease progresses, people experience greater memory loss and other cognitive difficulties. Problems can include:

wandering and getting losttrouble handling money and paying billsrepeating questionstaking longer to complete normal daily taskslosing things or misplacing them in odd placespersonality and behavior changes

 Alzheimer's disease is often diagnosed
at this stage.

Moderate Alzheimer's disease

In this stage, damage occurs in areas of the brain that control language, reasoning, sensory processing, and conscious thought. Symptoms may include:

increased memory loss and confusionproblems recognizing family and friendsinability to learn new thingsdifficulty carrying out multistep tasks such as getting dressedproblems coping with new situationshallucinations, delusions, and paranoiaimpulsive behavior

Severe Alzheimer's disease

People with severe Alzheimer's cannot communicate and are completely dependent on others for their care. Near the end, the person may be in bed most or all of the time as the body shuts down.      Their symptoms often include:

inability to communicate ;weight loss; seizures ;skin infections  difficulty swallowing  ,groaning, moaning, or grunting; increased sleeping ;lack of control of bowel and bladder. 
Ayurveda is in a progressing state, with Ayurveda scientists looking for effective curative properties in herbs like the Brahmi.

Ayurveda approaches diseases with the viewpoint that all diseases occur on account of an imbalance in the human body. The foundation of the science of Ayurveda is based on the concept of Tridosha – in accordance to which a person’s daily food, actions and thoughts have to be in composition with the Tridoshas.

According to the principles of Ayurveda, Alzheimer’s is caused as a result of the imbalance in vata – this imbalance is quite common as a person begins to grow in age. Alzheimer's disease  affects the vata – in the tissues of the central nervous system of the body – mainly the brain which then slowly becomes imbalanced.                                      Ayurveda terms this as smruthi nasha, caused by the depletion of dhatus or tissue elements and upward movement of the excessively accumulated bio energies. Intellect is pure, transparent, sharp, accurate, and subtle. The abode of intellect, which is the carrier of the three types of gunas- satvik, rajasik, tamasik, gets disturbed and their balance is lost. Satvik guna, which represents purity and consciousness, gets visually impaired by rajas, (the attribute of mind which usually represents energy and dynamism) and. Tamaa ,(the attribute of mind representing passivity and ignorance). manovaha srotas channels carrying cyclic impulses principally responsible for memory is kindled by the satva or the intellect.When this is completely evolved in tamaha or darkness the person is effected and there is malfunctioning of the mental activities. It is easier to prevent alzhimer’s then looking for treatment for correcting it.                                    
Ayurveda therapy treatment in Alzeihmer patients begins with a vata balancing diet. Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) in the powdered form along with either ghee or milk is included in the patient’s daily diet. This helps charge and soothe the vata.

An oil massage daily, prior to a bath is also considered significant in this form of treatment. Ayurveda specialized preparations for Alzheimer’s treatment that are made from rice have proved highly beneficial to the patients besides providing the required nutrients to the old age person.

Herbs such as Brahmi and Ashwagandha that serve as nerve tonics are mainly used in treating Alzheimer’s disease through the science of Ayurveda