HumasUPNVJ - Launching from the Bisnis.com page, Alzheimer's is part of dementia, which is a syndrome of decreased brain function that can affect cognitive function, emotion, and memory, behavior, and the ability to carry out daily activities. Apart from Alzheimer's, there is also vascular dementia, the cause of which is a disorder of the blood vessels in the brain due to diabetes mellitus or hypertension.

Both are often referred to by ordinary people as senile. Senile is often considered as a normal thing experienced by the elderly. Dementia, especially Alzheimer's, eventually goes undetected and can be fatal for those who suffer from it because it's not handled properly early on.

Based on data from Alzheimer's Disease International and the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 50 million people in the world who have dementia with nearly 10 million new cases each year. Of the many cases, Alzheimer's accounts for 60-70 percent of cases.

In Indonesia, the number of people with Alzheimer's has the opportunity to continue to increase in line with the increasing number of elderly people or the aging population as a result of an increase in life expectancy.

Conditions that need to be watched out for as a sign of dementia are the intensity of forgetting that becomes frequent, difficulty finding things or memories, worship activities and decreased productivity. Then the variation of forgotten aspects increases.

For example, at first they often forgot to put things away, now they forget appointments, people's names, and mealtimes. Next, forgetting old information like home addresses or having trouble recognizing people closest to you.

Technological developments make detection of dementia, especially Alzheimer's easier. Now, there is a cellphone application that can be used by doctors and the general public to help detect whether someone has the potential to become a person with Alzheimer's or not.

The application in question is E-Memory Screening (EMS) which was launched in September 2020 which coincided with the Indonesian Alzheimer's Month. The application can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and the App Store.

According to the General Chairperson of the Central Management (PP) Association of Neuroscientists (PERDOSSI), DR. dr. Dodik Taskworo P, SpS(K), the application developed by PT EISAI Indonesia will provide questions related to Alzheimer's Dementia that may be experienced by application users to find out how a person's memory is.

Then the application will provide a score and if the score indicates an abnormal condition, this application will provide a trusted referral directory feature to doctors around the user.

Alzheimer's symptoms in the elderly

Meanwhile, a Neurologist from Atma Jaya Catholic University (Unika) who also serves as the Alzheimer's Indonesia Advisory Council, dr. Yuda Turana S. said that senility can also be experienced by those who are still young. The rapid development of technology makes many young people reluctant to do physical activity, which is one reason.

Then coupled with unbalanced nutrition due to an unhealthy lifestyle, especially for those who live in urban areas with such dense activities. Although not many end up showing symptoms at a young age, this can trigger the emergence of Alzheimer's in the future

“The prevention of dementia, especially Alzheimer's, is not at the age of 40-50 years, but at a young age. Prevention in this case is a healthy lifestyle, in a physical sense, psychologically of course nutrition too. Physical activity, especially complex and fun physical activity, will stimulate the brain," he said.

Furthermore, Yuda said physical activity must also be balanced with good psychology. According to him, it would be useless for someone who regularly exercises but whose life is full of pressures such as stress and depression. Likewise with the intake of nutrients received by the body.

Poco-poco Exercise Prevents Alzheimer's

There are many ways you can do to prevent Alzheimer's and vascular dementia, one of which is by doing poco-poco gymnastics. According to a psychiatrist who is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, the Jakarta Veterans National Development University (UPN), dr. Ria Maria Theresa Sp.KJ, herself has successfully used this exercise to treat pre-dementia patients, especially those with diabetes mellitus.

Pre-dementia patients are patients who have the potential to develop Alzheimer's or vascular dementia in the next three to five years if no medical therapy or intervention is given.

"Based on research [which I did] diabetes mellitus patients who have mild cognitive abilities do poco-poco three times a week for 12 weeks will improve cognitive function, especially executive function in the pre-frontal cortex by 37.5%," he said .

This figure was obtained through a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) examination which showed an increase in the number of active brain neurons. Angled, rotating and crossing movements in poco-poco gymnastics besides stimulating brain neurons also stimulate motor, sensory and emotion.

Even so, Ria reminded that the success of therapy using songs from Maluku cannot be separated from the patient's self-discipline. In addition, what is felt by the patient also influences the success of the therapy.

The feeling of joy felt by the patient certainly influences the success of the therapy carried out. This is also what made Ria choose Poco-Poco gymnastics, instead of other gymnastics or dances.

"Actually, it doesn't have to be Poco-Poco, the important thing is to make you happy. But these Poco-Poco are part of our cultural wealth and their movements are not graceful. Then the impression is also macho because soldiers just do it. Men can do it," he concluded.