China News Service, Beijing, February 14th (Liu Huan) Recently, a news that a "19-year-old boy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease" has attracted widespread attention.
It is reported that this is the youngest confirmed case in the world so far.
Is Alzheimer's disease getting younger?
How to prevent this disease?
Forget about themselves and their loved ones, they become "old kids"
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Yang Mi, born in the 1990s, sat in the corridor of the hospital with his 78-year-old father, waiting for the test results.
Before coming to the hospital, she had already predicted her father's symptoms: poor memory, frequent temper tantrums, becoming irritable and restless... She remembered that her father once sat on the sofa and said to herself: "I am getting old, It seems to be different from before.”
Relatives scolded Yang Mi and brought his father to the hospital during the Chinese New Year. These illnesses seemed to them to be normal phenomena of old age.
"This is my only dad, and he is also a dad who loves me. He has obstacles in cognition, language, and work. How can I bear to ignore him?" Yang Mi posted on his social platform account "Daddy's Diary" wrote in.
His mother died young, and his elder sister has already married. Yang Mi is the only one left in the family to take care of his father who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
In the past, it was her father who raised her and her sister alone.
Now, she is the one who takes care of Daddy who is like a child again.
From seven o'clock in the morning, my father would sit on the sofa and wait for Yangmi when he woke up.
Cooking, cleaning up the housework, taking her father to do physical and memory training, dealing with the mess left by her father... she was busy until nine o'clock in the evening, and only after her father fell asleep, could she have a little time for herself.
"He listened to me very much and was very sticky to me." Yang Mi said that her father was very dependent on her after he fell ill. He was originally engaged in self-media work, but in order to take care of his father, he shortened his working hours a lot. "I am his pillar."
Data map: The picture shows the elderly playing chess in the Kangyang Home Nursing Home located in Kangping Street, Liangqing District, Nanning City, Guangxi.
Photo by Huang Yanmei
Compared with Yang Mi's father who has just been diagnosed, 35-year-old Li Jialin has a grandmother who has been ill for about ten years.
While taking care of the family business, she also takes on the responsibility of taking care of the elderly.
Today, her grandma not only does not remember her relatives, but also does not recognize herself. She often talks to herself in the mirror as a strange old man.
"She doesn't know that she is an old man, and her memory has completely returned to her childhood, and she often said 'I want to find my mother' and 'I want to go home'." Li Jialin said.
Over the years of illness, Li Jialin and his family have not been able to adapt to the changes of the elderly at the same rate as the deterioration of the disease.
Grandma not only lost her memory a little bit, but also became sensitive and suspicious. She always felt that someone was bullying her, and everything around her became strange and out of control.
Li Jialin saw that grandma often cried involuntarily at a certain time in the afternoon.
"The evolution of this disease is long and unpredictable, and only the family members of the patient can truly appreciate the severity of the disease," she said.
Can young people get dementia too?
Alzheimer's disease is a chronic brain disease that gradually destroys memory and thinking abilities.
This is the most common type of Alzheimer's disease and one of the diseases with the highest incidence in the elderly population.
According to official data, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease among people aged 65 and over in China is 5.56%, and it is expected to exceed 40 million by 2050.
Jia Jianping, director of the Neurological Disease High Innovation Center of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University and director of the Department of Neurology of Capital Medical University, said that genetics, environment and aging are the three major factors that lead to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
In addition, with the development of gene sequencing technology, scientists have discovered that APOE ε4 is the greatest risk gene for Alzheimer's disease.
APOE protein is one of human apolipoproteins, and there are three subtypes of APOE2, APOE3 and APOE4 in the population.
Carriers of APOE ε4 have a exponentially increased risk compared with other genes.
A few days ago, the news that a 19-year-old boy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease was on the hot search, and the patient was diagnosed by Jia Jianping's team.
It is reported that this is the youngest patient so far.
Jia Jianping pointed out that the diagnosis of this patient overturned our understanding of the age of onset of Alzheimer's disease, and suggested that early-onset Alzheimer's disease may have other potential pathogenic mechanisms and unknown genetic factors.
After their family members were diagnosed, both Yang Mi and Li Jialin wondered whether they would get sick one day.
After gradually gaining a deeper understanding of the disease, they all discovered that Alzheimer's disease is not unique to the elderly.
"We are not afraid of the disease itself, but what to do after getting sick. Especially young people, who will take care of them when they are sick?" Li Jialin said.
Data map: The picture shows that in 2022, the staff of the Tangshan City Pension Service Station wears filial piety bracelets for the elderly to monitor the location and physical condition of the elderly in real time.
Photo by Meng Chao
Jia Jianping said that at present, it can only be said that Alzheimer's disease has a younger trend.
According to the diagnosis and treatment situation of the hospital, young people with memory impairment only account for a small proportion.
"In outpatient clinics, a small number of young people have memory impairment complaints, such as sudden memory impairment in people in their twenties and thirties. These situations may be memory decline caused by psychological factors such as anxiety and depression. In general, this group occurs The rate of Alzheimer's disease is much smaller and nothing to worry about," he said.
Can't hide, can't heal? Experts: Six ways to effectively prevent
At present, there is no drug that can cure Alzheimer's disease, and clinical diagnostic techniques and methods are long-term problems.
Experts pointed out that early identification and early intervention are the most effective ways to delay Alzheimer's disease.
A few days ago, Jia Jianping told Chinanews.com that the condition of the 19-year-old boy who was diagnosed earlier has improved, and his academic performance has improved significantly.
"This also gave me an inspiration. Maybe young people have stronger compensatory ability, and the treatment effect is expected to be better than that of elderly patients. If they get good treatment and mental intervention, I think the expectation should be better. This may be Upends the notion that Alzheimer's disease treatments don't work well," he said.
Jia Jianping's team has carried out a study on how to prevent memory loss in the elderly by adjusting lifestyle since 2009.
In a 10-year cohort study, they found that six lifestyles, diet, physical exercise, social interaction, brain use, and smoking and alcohol control, can help protect memory.
Although the genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease cannot be changed, a healthy and active lifestyle can effectively slow down the decline and loss of memory.
The results of the study show that if middle-aged and elderly people adhere to at least seven recommended diets (cereals, beans, vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, nuts, dairy products, moderate amounts of salt, oil, fish, drinking tea, etc.) seven kinds of diet), no less than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or no less than 75 minutes of high-intensity physical exercise per week, no less than twice a week of social activities, no less than twice a week of reading and thinking Activities such as writing and writing, and controlling alcohol and tobacco can greatly reduce the incidence of dementia.
Data map: The picture shows the elderly exercising in the park.
Photo by Li Xiaogang
After her grandma was diagnosed, Li Jialin and her mother paid attention to the protection and training of memory.
My mother recites Tang poems every day, while she memorizes Chinese and English dictionaries.
Li Jialin believes that diseases are random for everyone, and only by truly understanding and paying attention to them can the damage caused by diseases be minimized.
"Alzheimer's disease always evolves suddenly, so you have to be firm in your goals, keep learning, and keep as many memories as you can," she said.
(At the request of the interviewee, some names in the article are pseudonyms) (End)