Cognitive impairment, cerebral vascular insufficiency, encephalopathy, dementia… How to prevent and treat correctly?
Every year, doctors increasingly diagnose "dyscirculatory encephalopathy" (DEP) - a chronic, progressive, focal or diffuse brain lesion, manifested by neurological and mental disorders and caused by chronic cerebrovascular insufficiency and / or repeated acute cerebrovascular accidents (strokes). The terms "chronic cerebral ischemia", "ischemic brain disease", "cerebrovascular disease", "chronic disorders of cerebral circulation" are also used. Moreover, if earlier it was the lot of the elderly and old people, today it is often detected in people of middle and even young age. With untimely diagnosis and treatment, this condition is fraught with progression to organic encephalopathy (brain pathology) and early dementia (dementia), including Alzheimer's disease.
The main symptoms of DEP are:
– frequent instability of blood pressure,
- cognitive impairments (memory, attention, perception, analysis; limited range of interests),
- sleep disorders
- headaches and other unpleasant sensations in the head that interfere with concentration, work and doing the usual things: “head like cast iron”, “like a dusty bag hit”, “heavy head”, “stale head”, “not mine, different” and etc.),
- dizziness, unsteadiness when walking,
- weakness in the body
- noise in ears,
- increased irascibility, frequent changes in mood, anxiety, depression,
- general weakness of the body, especially in the legs,
- fast fatigue
- Decreased hearing and/or vision.
Orthodox medicine refers to arterial hypertension (blood pressure above 140/90), atherosclerosis (hardening of the walls of cerebral vessels), spinal diseases, metabolic disorders, etc. to the main causes of DEP. But why do these violations occur?
Today, more and more scientists single out chronic psycho-emotional stress as the cause of the development and decompensation of cerebrovascular insufficiency. Acute and / or chronic psycho-emotional stress (stressful work and / or family situation, sleep disturbance, night work, daily work without rest, work in extreme conditions), triggers a destructive cascade leading to spasm of brain vessels and its poor supply blood, as a result of which various biochemical processes in nerve cells are disturbed. Stress is especially difficult for the brain against the background of overweight and obesity, diabetes mellitus, lack of regular physical activity, frequent air travel, alcohol abuse and smoking. The relationship between stress and cardiovascular disease has already been well studied, the risk of which increases by 4 times with stress.
Однако нейроэндокринные и поведенческие изменения, сопровождающие реакцию на стресс, влияют не только на сердечно-сосудистую систему, но и на гомеостаз всего организма, в т. ч. гомеостаз нейронов. Гормоны стресса (адренокортикотропный гормон, кортизол, норадреналин и др.), будучи хронически повышены, оказывают прямое пагубное воздействие на мозг, нарушая метаболизм, пластичность и выживаемость нейронов и клетки обслуживающей их микроглии.
Stress-induced hormonal and behavioral responses are involved in the development of hypertension, atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, and other peripheral disorders that exacerbate existing neuropathological processes. In turn, changes in neuroplasticity can affect perception, adaptation, and resilience to stress. Chronically elevated blood pressure in stressful situations becomes a common cause of stroke, vascular dementia, and exacerbates neurodegenerative processes in the brain. Circulatory deficiency causes suppression of brain activity and cognitive functions.
Particularly detrimental to the brain are the main mental consequences of chronic stress - anxiety and depression, which have a negative impact on cognitive functions. Studies have shown that cognitive impairment occurs in 19% of patients with anxiety and 21% of patients with depression. The combination of emotional and cognitive impairments in depression and anxiety disorders significantly reduces the quality of life of patients, often leads to loss or deterioration in working capacity, the emergence of family conflicts, and is generally characterized by large economic losses associated with both the provision of medical care and numerous social factors. It has been established that anxiety and depressive disorders are directly related to ischemic cerebrovascular accidents.
Therefore, the treatment of DEP and other cerebrovascular disorders requires both stress psychotherapy and the use of neurometabolic and neuroprotective drugs that have a positive effect on the metabolism in the brain and activate recovery processes in it. These drugs in many patients slow down the degenerative processes supported by cerebral ischemia and reduce the risk of dementia.
Today, a new cause of brain dysfunction has emerged. Scientists at Northwestern University USA establishedthat coronavirus can lead to encephalopathy, strokes and other neurological complications: such symptoms in one form or another occur in more than 80% of patients. And researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, after analyzing 62,000 cases of COVID-19, discovered, what in within three months of illness, one in five patients was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, or insomnia for the first time. Also significantly increased the risk of dementia. “COVID-19 is attacking the brain in ways we haven’t seen in any virus before,” said Michael Zandi, a consultant at University College London.
– two sessions of psychotherapy to relieve stress,
– 3 sessions of transcranial electrical stimulation to restore the correct electrical activity of the brain,
- the appointment of neurometabolic and neuroprotective drugs in the form of a dropper and tablet preparations.
The course is recommended for 2 - 3 weekly blocks, depending on the severity of the condition.
The cost of one block is 13,000 UAH.
If you have the above symptoms but have not yet been tested, we offer a comprehensive neurological examination that includes:
- electroencephalography is a non-invasive, painless study of the bioelectrical activity of the brain in order to diagnose various diseases. To do this, electrodes are placed on the head using a special gel, which record brain waves. The examination lasts from 20 to 60 minutes, depending on the specifics of the problem.
- the study of evoked potentials of the brain - allows you to determine the parts of the nervous system in which the passage of impulses from the sense organs to the brain and vice versa is inhibited, to study the work of the autonomic nervous system. The method is an invaluable tool for the early detection and prognosis of neurological disorders in various diseases (stroke, brain tumors, consequences of traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, visual impairment, hearing impairment, motor coordination, hypertension, headaches, in the case of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases). and other disorders of brain activity.The study takes from 30 to 60 minutes.
- neuropsychological diagnostics - examines all mental processes - memory, attention, thinking and imagination in order to recognize their possible changes in neurological diseases. Based on the results of the examination, it is possible to determine the mental state and quality of life of the patient. On average, the study takes an hour or more.
The cost of a comprehensive examination is 1300 UAH. It is also recommended to pre-make an MRI of the brain in any place convenient for you (there is also an MRI machine at the Institute of Gerontology).
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