The silent killer less understood

Manama : Someone in the world develops dementia every 3 seconds. An estimated 46.8 million people worldwide suffered from dementia in 2015 and this number reached 50 million in 2017. These numbers will almost double every 20 years, reaching 75 million in 2030 and 131.5 million in 2050. Alzheimer’s is a silent killer less-understood. According to a report published by The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently, the disease is a global health challenge. By 2050, the WHO expects to see a 125 per cent jump in cases of Alzheimer’s in the Middle East.

“It was so sad to see a woman who was so creative to suddenly lose all her abilities coupled with hallucinations. She started believing that she was being kidnapped. That never stopped. As her family, we were pleased to take care of her but what broke our heart was the knowledge that it cannot be cured,” said one of the members of the family of a 63-year old woman who suffered from Alzheimer’s. “I saw how my aunt’s facial features changed and aged so quickly. She lost so much weight and is barely recognizable,” said another, narrating the most painful experiences her family underwent.

“I also have a friend who was so good at his job and was distinguished among his colleague. She started complaining about vision issues and neurologists later told his family that he has Alzheimer’s. It is sad to see someone in his 50s lose everything. When our children grow it is time for us to start living our lives and it’s a pity when that time comes, the disease strikes and we lose it all,” said a mother.

 “My dad was a great man. He was so sharp and intelligent and it all happened overnight. He went to pick up my children from school but didn’t come back. When I called him, all he could say was that he didn’t know where he was. He was an architect known for his creativity and nothing is as sad as having him around yet he mentally not being with us. He sometimes doesn’t recognize us except my mother as she is always with him at home,” said another. Dr Moiz Bakhiet, Professor & Chairman, Department of Molecular Medicine, Consultant Neurologist at Arabian Gulf University, said it is very difficult to diagnose Alzheimer’s. 

“ We see people with memory issues among individuals and people often label it as Alzheimer’s. People mix it up between Alzheimer’s, diminished memory and dementia,” he said. “Dementia is a part of Alzheimer’s and there can be other cause of dementia as well. Generally, Alzheimer’s come under geriatric medicine which is a kind of treatment that is available as a service but not as a speciality in the hospitals to take care of the diseases in the hospital,” Dr Moiz said. “We are introducing a new programme now, the anti-ageing medicine, which involves gene therapy and studying lifestyle habits, hormonal changes, sleep behaviours and stem cell therapy so as professionals can correct the poor habits biologically and further improve lifestyle activities and food eating habits,” he said.

“Everything is related to a genome, nutrients are interacting with genomes. Moreover, individuals’ lifestyles, environmental factors interact with genomes. To reduce the risk factors of diseases like Alzheimer’s, an anti-ageing medicine is being developed to correct these genomes,” he said. “If an individual has a long life sans quality, I think it puts a lot of burden on the family, the society. If an individual is still active living a high-quality and a productive life then it will be great for the community,” he said.

“The first sign is progressive deterioration of memory, with changes in behaviour, personal and social and irrelevant speech. Alzheimer’s usually occurs in the late age but in a few cases, it may occur in the early 40’s or 50’s. The current problem is that young individuals are more prone to Alzheimer than the previous generation due to the lifestyle adopted by the current generation, that is the type of food, the type of activity, the electrical pollution, such as mobiles computers the current generation uses artificial memory.  Moreover, if the youth continue to keep their memory inactive and use electronic memory the neurons will collapse and if neurons start to collapse it won’t regenerate again, which may lead to Alzheimer’s, dementia or even more serious new diseases. Further, diseases are evolving now, thus there are certain treatments that are helping the patients but there is no cure.  Thus awareness on the issue in the country is a must,” he said.

“To the best of my knowledge, we have no clear statistics about an increase in the prevalence rates of Alzheimer’s in Bahrain specifically in recent times. There has been an increase in the prevalence rates of Alzheimer’s around the world. This is because there is a larger ageing population,” said Dr Anisha Abraham Clinical Psychologist at the American Mission Hospital.

“Another factor could be the association between vascular risk factors such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, hypertension and Alzheimer’s disease. The increased prevalence of these risk factors could account for the increase in rates,” she said. “The main problem lies in the poor awareness of the condition, both in the general public as well as among healthcare providers. Lack of specialized training in geriatric mental health among health care professionals is leading to barriers to early detection of the condition and disease progression. Further lack of suitable facilities that cater to the needs of people with dementias using evidence-based interventions,” Dr Anisha said.

“Caring for a patient with dementia is demanding and exhausting. Many caregivers experience burnout and even mental health conditions such as depression. There are emotional issues associated with frustration and guilt. Given that Alzheimer’s is a condition associated with the aged, the caregivers are usually adults, typically in their 40s and 50s, and have their own health issues, roles and responsibilities and caring for the parent with Alzheimer’s, making every day decisions for them, handling the symptoms of the condition all become stressful,” she said.

“ It is unfortunate the needs of the geriatric population often get neglected. There is a need for families, caregivers, patients and healthcare providers to come together to create groups to spread awareness on the issue. Geriatric mental health needs to be emphasized on during medical training so that primary care physicians are able to identify these cases at an early stage to intervene in time and slow down the process of degeneration,” she said.