Even in Greek philosophy and medicine, the idea of the influence of the soul and spirit on the human body was widespread. Translated from Greek, “psycho” means soul, and “soma” means body. The soul and body are inextricably linked - Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle spoke about this. The term “psychosomatics” will soon be two hundred years old; it was coined in 1818 by the German physician Heinroth.
Psychosomatic diseases are diseases of internal organs and systems that arise as a result of mental ill-being.
Psychotherapists say: any disease first arises in the subconscious and only then manifests itself at the body level. That is, most of our ailments are associated with unresolved internal problems. The main psychological causes of illnesses are anger, envy, anxiety and guilt.
Many scientists believe that 80% of all diseases are actually psychosomatic. Our well-being depends on our thoughts, mood, ability to find and see positive things, beauty and enjoy it all. The state of health is associated with the ability to be happy, character traits, attitude to successes and failures at work, and everyday problems.
According to the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, symptoms and diseases of various organs are a symbolic language with the help of which the body wants to communicate repressed mental conflicts.
Almost half of all human diseases can be psychosomatic in nature. Among them are diseases:
- heart and blood vessels (arterial hypertension, hypertension, rheumatism, vegetative dystonia, coronary heart disease, heart rhythm disturbances, heart attacks)
- gastrointestinal tract (peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, ulcerative colitis, biliary dyskinesia)
- nervous system (chronic headaches, tension pain, dizziness)
- skin (neurodermatitis, relapses of psoriasis)
- gynecological, including those related to the woman’s reproductive cycle (premenstrual tension syndrome, gestosis, postpartum depression)
- endocrine
- and many others.
Symptoms of psychosomatic diseases
Sometimes doctors are faced with situations where it is not possible to accurately determine the cause of a particular disease. It happens that there are no physiological prerequisites for the development of the disease, but the disease progresses.
If medical examination cannot detect a physical or organic cause of the disease, or if the disease is the result of emotional states such as anger, anxiety, depression, guilt, then the disease is classified as psychosomatic.
There are certain signals that the cause of the disease lies precisely in the field of psychology:
- Frequent recurrence of the disease. The person receives treatment according to the doctor's recommendations, but eventually the symptoms disappear for a short time and soon reappear. That is, adequate drug treatment does not give the expected result.
- The presence of psychological trauma or chronic stress. If a patient knows that he has had a difficult period or something is wrong in his personal life, it is better to immediately contact both a therapist and a psychotherapist, which will help to quickly establish the true cause of the disease and select the right treatment.
- Traditional treatment does not help - another feature of psychosomatic illness.
Alzheimer's disease
Diabetes
21310 02 December
IMPORTANT!
The information in this section cannot be used for self-diagnosis and self-treatment.
In case of pain or other exacerbation of the disease, diagnostic tests should be prescribed only by the attending physician. To make a diagnosis and properly prescribe treatment, you should contact your doctor. Alzheimer's disease: causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment methods.
Definition
Alzheimer's disease is a chronic degenerative disease of the brain, characterized by a sharp decrease in intellectual abilities up to the total collapse of intelligence and mental activity. The disease got its name from Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who first described this disease in 1906.
Memory is a complex process that can be divided into two components - the process of memorization and the process of reproduction. In Alzheimer's disease, it is the process of memorization that is disrupted. There is a term “memory trace consolidation,” which refers to the process of transition of information received by the brain from short-term memory to long-term memory. It is not fully understood, but in patients with Alzheimer's disease this process is lost. Neither studying nor memorizing poems helps them - every day starts from scratch for them.
The disease causes damage to neurons and the death of cells in the cerebral cortex responsible for memory and the formation of emotions.
This leads to a decrease in mental abilities, speed of thinking, reaction, ability to cope with daily activities, navigate in space and critically evaluate one's actions. There is a significant violation of everyday, professional, social independence and everyday adaptation.
Causes of Alzheimer's disease
The exact causes of Alzheimer's disease are not fully understood. It is only known that it is based on the pathological activity of specific proteins beta-amyloid and tau proteins:
- beta-amyloids have a toxic effect on neurons and disrupt intercellular communication;
- Tau proteins disrupt the neuronal transport system and are toxic to brain cells.
Thus, Alzheimer's disease is characterized by a disorder of protein metabolism, the formation and deposition in tissues of a specific protein-polysaccharide complex - amyloid beta, and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles in the cerebral cortex and subcortical gray matter.
Studies of the brains of people suffering from this disease have shown pathologies of neurons and massive formation of plaques and tangles. In addition, with Alzheimer's disease, the body lacks an enzyme necessary for the formation of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is an important participant in intercellular communication.
Pathological forms of beta-amyloid are formed in all people, but they are eliminated (removed) from the brain and do not cause problems. The modern hypothesis about the development of the disease is that the disease arises precisely because of a violation of elimination. The protein accumulates in the brain and, exceeding a certain threshold, triggers the disease. Various risk factors are involved in impaired elimination of this protein - age, bad habits (smoking, excessive alcohol consumption), vascular pathologies, genetic predisposition.
It is believed that with normal night sleep, the “cleansing” of beta-amyloids from the brain occurs 10 times more actively than during the day.
The disease is twice as common in women as in men, partly due to women's longer life expectancy. The predominance of the number of patients in developed countries is associated with an increase in the proportion of elderly people.
Hereditary forms, which are clearly defined today, according to the highest estimates, account for up to 10% of all cases of the disease. They are associated with mutations in three genes that are involved in the formation of pathological forms of the beta-amyloid protein.
Other risk factors:
- uncontrolled arterial hypertension in middle and old age;
- atherosclerosis of the large arteries of the head;
- hyperlipidemia;
- hyperhomocysteinemia;
- diabetes;
- excess body weight;
- physical inactivity;
- chronic hypoxia;
- history of traumatic brain injury.
Classification of the disease
Modern classification is based on the age principle, in which 65 years is a kind of starting point. According to statistics, starting from the age of 65, the incidence of Alzheimer's disease doubles approximately every five years. There are two clinical types:
Early onset Alzheimer's disease
(up to 65 years - the so-called presenile variant) is characterized by rapid progression of deterioration of memory, intellectual activity and higher cortical functions. This leads to the early development of total dementia with a pronounced breakdown of speech, life skills and impairment of various types of perception (visual, auditory, tactile). This form is characterized by a family history of the disease.
Late-onset Alzheimer's disease
(after 65 - senile variant) progresses more slowly, memory impairment remains the main symptom for a long time. Subsequently, with the steady development of the disease, total dementia of the amnesia type is observed. Severe cortical focal disorders leading to paralysis occur relatively rarely.
In addition, it is possible to distinguish an atypical form, or mixed type dementia, when symptoms characteristic of both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia are combined.
Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease
For Alzheimer's disease, the dominant symptom is impaired memory for current events, while long-term memory is well preserved. The most common early sign of Alzheimer's disease is trouble remembering new information, as the disease typically affects the part of the brain associated with learning first.
Hyposmia (decreased olfactory function) is considered a precognitive symptom. That is, before the first problems with memory or thinking begin, a person ceases to clearly distinguish odors.
Main symptoms of Alzheimer's disease:
- amnesia – memory loss, forgetfulness;
- loss of ability to concentrate;
- apraxia (loss of practical skills, for example, dressing, tying shoelaces, making coffee, etc.);
- loss of orientation in time and space;
- impairment of cognitive (cognitive) functions;
- agnosia (lack of interpretation of perceived information);
- motor aphasia (speech impairment, slurred speech);
- apathy (lack of interest in life, loss of interest in previous hobbies and favorite activities);
- problems in self-care and communication with other people.
Even relatively young people with distinct depressive symptoms experience organic changes in the brain, such as atrophy of the hippocampus (the part of the brain that is involved in the formation of emotions, registration of new information and spatial memory).
All of these symptoms appear gradually; in the initial stages, the patient may not feel serious problems. As the disease progresses, critical judgment and attention decline, and memory impairment becomes more severe. People with Alzheimer's disease forget the date, day of the week and year, their home address, and do not recognize the place where they are at a given time. Then more and more new symptoms appear - speech becomes simpler, words fall out of memory and are often replaced with similar ones in meaning, recognition of objects and their functional purpose is lost, life skills begin to suffer - using even ordinary household appliances becomes a problem. In most cases, patients do not notice changes around and in themselves, although sometimes there may be moments of clarity and understanding becomes clearer. The ability to recognize loved ones gradually decreases. In the later stages of the disease, the ability to speak and understand the speech of others is completely lost. All the person’s previous skills disappear, he can no longer get out of bed, get dressed, go to the toilet and feed himself.
Patients with Alzheimer's disease often experience mental and behavioral disorders, irritability, aggressiveness, mood swings, unreasonable feelings of fear, anxiety, suspicion, sleep disturbances (difficulty falling asleep, disruption of daily routine, night wandering).
Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease
Typically, diagnosing Alzheimer's disease is similar to diagnosing other types of dementia. But despite the clinical and specific laboratory and imaging characteristics, the final diagnosis can only be confirmed by histological examination of brain tissue.
If the patient or his relatives have complaints about memory loss, professional and social maladjustment, the following is carried out:
- objective examination to identify characteristic clinical signs of dementia;
- taking anamnesis and determining family history of Alzheimer's disease;
- mental status examination.
Various tests are used to diagnose cognitive functions.
For example, the Mini-Cog test is a very simple but informative method that includes the assessment of short-term memory (memorizing and reproducing 3 words) and visual-spatial coordination (clock drawing test). Clinical criteria allow us to diagnose and differentiate Alzheimer's disease from other types of dementia, such as vascular dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies, with 85% accuracy.
Laboratory tests are performed to identify other treatable causes of dementia and disorders that may worsen symptoms:
- genetic predisposition to atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease;
Diagnosis of psychosomatic disorders
It’s rare that a doctor will immediately suspect a patient is psychosomatic. Typically, such diseases do not differ in appearance from somatic diseases; for example, it is never possible to immediately determine whether a patient’s gastritis is caused by the Helicobacter bacterium or some kind of experience. Very often, doctors diagnose problems with the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular system, nervous system or immunity, without even knowing about the patient’s mental trauma.
What does such a diagnosis of the disease lead to? The doctor prescribes medications to the patient that should alleviate his condition and cure the disease. The prescribed treatment really alleviates the symptoms, and the doctor happily releases the patient. But, after the end of the course of treatment, after some time, all the symptoms return, and the doctor begins to look for more effective treatment and stronger medications.
A few years later we have a chronically ill person who takes a mountain of medications and suffers from side effects and the inability to recover. At the same time, in order to alleviate his condition and completely solve the problem, it was necessary to consult a psychotherapist from the very beginning, but either the patient was embarrassed to tell the doctor about his problems, or the doctor did not ask, or both did not suspect it in time, and time was lost.
Since psychosomatic diseases arise as a result of mental disorders affecting the human body, several specialists should be involved in the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases: a psychotherapist and a specialized specialist - a therapist, a neurologist, a cardiologist, an endocrinologist. You need to treat both the soul and the body at the same time.
The role of the psychotherapist is to determine the nature of the emotional state that caused the disease and help the patient cope with them. The development of psychosomatic diseases can be provoked not so much by the presence as by the unexpressed and suppressed emotions of negative emotions. Suppressed and muffled emotions gradually burn out, destroying the human body and provoking the onset of illness.
Almost any negative emotion that is carefully hidden, be it fear, anger, sadness or hatred, sooner or later can find its way out in illness.
Two points of view
Where do diseases come from? American Louise Hay, a world-famous psychosomatic physician, has studied the mechanism of various diseases and identified the connection between ailments and human thoughts.
And doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, homeopath Valery Sinelnikov, found his own definition regarding diseases of the physical body. The doctor gave this explanation: it’s a matter of negative thoughts, actions and wrong attitudes. In his opinion, the causes of many ailments appear due to dislike of oneself. People are considered guilty of all sins and misdeeds.
But the Universe loves everyone, regardless of their actions, so you need to love yourself. How to do it:
- First of all, you need to forgive yourself for everything, start appreciating yourself and your life.
- Don't be hostile to yourself.
- It is very important not to blame yourself.
- Do not be angry with yourself, do not castigate yourself.
If you do not perceive yourself as God created you, then you do not love yourself and blame our Creator for everything.
Therefore, Sinelnikov suggests not to be angry with yourself, then the world around you will become kinder, because instead of being angry at fate, you will have gratitude for the fact that you were born. And they come into this world to be happy.
Who is at risk of developing a psychosomatic disorder?
People who are accustomed to restraining their emotions and experiences are most susceptible to psychosomatic diseases. But there are situations when even the most balanced and calm people cannot cope with emotions, so it cannot be said that anyone is completely immune from psychosomatic diseases.
If a psychosomatic disease or a tendency to it is not detected in childhood or adolescence, then subsequently diagnosing the disease is very difficult. For example, a disease such as alcoholism usually develops due to a feeling of inadequacy to expectations or requirements, constant guilt and rejection of oneself as an individual. This begins in childhood, if parents place too high demands on the child, and a person becomes a real alcoholic in adulthood, when it is not easy to find the roots of the problem.
The cause of frequent colds can be a lack of simple joy in life, and anemia can be caused by fear of the unknown. Throat diseases are more often diagnosed in patients who cannot express their opinions and express their anger. Life uncertainty and some doom can cause the development of gastritis. Infertility often affects people who are afraid of changing their role in the world and the passage of time. In general, people who are afraid to live, are not confident in themselves and their capabilities, cannot realize themselves, risk getting many unpleasant diseases, including neoplasms, which can also have psychosomatic causes.
