Alzheimer’s Disease - Ayurvedic Understanding & Case Studies

Alzheimer’s Disease

• Difficulty in thinking and reasoning
• Making judgements and decisions
• Difficulty in recognizing known people or things
• Depression and anxiety
• Inability to do routine chores like bathing, grooming or eating
• Inability to remember recent activities or events
• Highly emotional behaviour and social withdrawal
• Forgetting common words while speaking, reading or writing
• Mood swings, Distrust in others, Irritability and aggressiveness, Changes in sleeping habits, Wandering, Loss of inhibitions, Delusions, such as believing something has been stolen.

Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri)

• A study was conducted on a 83 year old female patient who developed progressive dementia. At the age of 76 she started to exhibit disturbances of short-term memory and orientation, along with a difficulty in learning new information. Without any past history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and head injury. Although she had some psycho-behavioral changes, such as apathy, anxiety, agitation, and irritability. She required the presence of a caregiver, though she was prescribed AChE inhibitor (donepezil 10 mg) and Yokukansan, which is a traditional Japanese medicine (Kampo). When she was 83 years old, she scored on 1/30 her Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), which was used for evaluation of cognitive functions. After turmeric 764 mg/day (curcumin 100 mg/day) treatment for 12 weeks, both scores of acuity of symptoms and burden of caregivers were decreased by the Japanese version of neuropsychiatric inventory-brief questionnaire (NPI-Q). Among the NPI-Q subscales, her agitation, apathy, anxiety, and irritability were relieved. She began to tell about the need to urinate. Furthermore, she came to join in the laughter watching TV comedy program, began to sing some songs and do knitting, which she used to do. After taking turmeric for more than 1 year, she came to recognize her family, and seem to remind her late husband and she lives a peaceful life without a significant BPSD.

• Another study on an 84 year old female at the hospital suffering from progressive dementia was done, where she had symptoms of forgetfulness, disorientation to place and time, hallucination, delusion, agitation, irritability, depression, apathy, confabulation, wandering, and incontinence of urine, which developed several years prior to presentation. She also had a history of hypertension but was a non-smoker and drank little alcohol. Her all physical examinations and her laboratory data were normal but her cognitive decline was already very severe and her MMSE score was 0/30. On cerebral MRI revealed moderate bilateral temporal atrophy with the mild ventricular dilation. AChE inhibitor (donepezil) could not use because of the side-effects. Her BPSD, including agitation, irritability, and anxiety was not improved, though she was prescribed Yokukansanand atypical antipsychotic drugs. She was administered turmeric 764 mg/day (curcumin 100 mg/day) and her BPSD (hallucination, delusion, depression, agitation, apathy, anxiety, and irritability) were relieved and she gradually calmed down. She stopped urinating outside the front door. She came to put on her clothes properly, and distinguish her family from staffs of the care centre. After 12 weeks, judging from the Japanese version of NPI-Q, both acuity of BPSD and burden of caregivers were relieved. She has been taking turmeric for more than 1 year; she lives in a peacefully serene manner with her family.

• Yet another 79 year old male was reported the short term memory loss gradually developed over several years, though he was already prescribed AChE inhibitor (donepezil 5 mg) by his previous doctor for 3 years. He had a history of hypertension being treated with losartan potassium. His physical and routine blood tests reports were normal. Cerebral MRI demonstrated mild bilateral temporal atrophy with mild ischemic changes in deep white matter. Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography showed typical AD pattern, which means perfusion in the temporal, parietal, and posterior cingulated is significantly decreased. His MMSE score was 12/30, with poor orientation to place and time, calculation, concentration, recall, transcription of the figure, spontaneous writing, and verbal fluency. His BPSD was agitation, depression, apathy, anxiety, euphoria, aberrant eating behaviour, and irritability. Turmeric 764 mg/day (curcumin 100 mg/day) treatment for 12 weeks relieved the patient’s BPDS, especially agitation, irritability, and depression. His MMSE score was up five points, 17/30, improving calculation, concentration, transcription of the figure, and spontaneous writing. He has been taking turmeric for more than one year.