Autumn to winter, Uncle Zhang found that recently his wife Aunt Wang was a little overly "active", often lost his temper at every turn, shouted at a little unpleasantness, and was even more emotionally irritable in the afternoon, and needed to continue to walk outside for two or three hours to calm down. Another time, Aunt Wang had to put the lunch box on her feet as a shoe to wear, and it took a night of noise to calm down. Uncle Zhang wanted to take Aunt Wang to the hospital for examination, but was scolded by Aunt Wang for an afternoon, believing that Uncle Zhang wanted to send her to the hospital and lock her up. In desperation, Uncle Zhang had to call the hospital for help.
After receiving the phone call, the author told him that Aunt Wang actually had mental and behavioral symptoms of dementia. The causes of psychobehavioral symptoms are complex, and there is no clear cause so far. The recent symptoms of Aunt Wang can be summarized as the phenomenon of "sunset syndrome".
Symptoms are varied
The concept "sunset syndrome" is used to describe a series of emotional and cognitive changes in mood and cognitive function in alzheimer's patients at dusk, such as mood disturbances, anxiety, hyperactivity, and loss of sense of direction, often lasting several hours or throughout the night.
Chinese medicine believes that Alzheimer's disease occurs in the process of aging due to kidney deficiency, marrow loss and brain loss, or sputum stasis, poison damage to the brain network caused by the use of the machine.
When sunset syndrome strikes, these old people can't even remember who they are, where they are, or what they're doing. The severity of the onset of sunset syndrome is affected by many factors, and environmental changes, seasonal changes, excessive fatigue, emotional agitation, jet lag, and chronic pain are common causes of onset.
Common coping methods
While sunset syndrome cannot be completely prevented from flare-ups in older patients, we can take proactive steps to help them cope.
A short sleep break at noon arranges for the elderly to take a short nap around 13:00 noon to reduce the fatigue of the evening and avoid causing emotional irritability.
It is recommended to prepare fruits, snacks, yogurt and other simple meals for the elderly from 15:00 to 16:00 in the afternoon to alleviate the discomfort of hunger in the evening.
Turn on the lights early in the evening before the light line darkens, and reduce the stimulation of the mood of the elderly by increasing indoor lighting.
Arrange favorite activities in the afternoon to arrange cultural and sports activities that the elderly like, such as listening to music, chatting, walking, diverting the attention of the elderly and reducing bad emotional stimulation.
Investigate the causes of illness and pay attention to whether there are causes of pain, environmental changes, physical discomfort and other causes of illness, and if necessary, go to the hospital for treatment.
Medicinal diet to increase wisdom usually let the elderly eat more walnuts, black sesame seeds and other nootropic foods, lotus seeds to nourish the heart and calm the mind, carry yam into the lungs, spleen and kidneys, are beneficial to the elderly.
Acupuncture and tuina acupuncture tuina can help to penetrate the brain network, purify the heart fire, reduce phlegm and reduce turbidity, often take acupuncture points such as Baihui, Qiangjian, Brain Household, Water Gutter, Shenmen, Shenting, Fenglong and so on.
In addition, we must pay attention to eliminating safety hazards and put away kitchen knives, hot water bottles and other items around the elderly.
Source: China Traditional Chinese Medicine News