GRANDPA’S daughter served him his favourite lunch, but two hours later he was complaining of hunger and accusing her of deliberately starving him.

Author Daw May Hnin, who writes under the name Shwegu May Hnin, feels a pang whenever she hears a story like this. She remembers her mother, who died of a then-unknown disease.

“It was 1975 and my mum was 65 years old. I first realised something was wrong when she would come back from the bazaar with the same food she’d already bought.”

She took her mother to the monastery to see if they could help. By that time her mother thought Daw May Hnin was her niece.

“The monk said that my mum was suffering from a diseased gall bladder and gave her some medicine. But it didn’t help – it got worse from day to day.”

In reality Daw May Hnin’s mum was suffering from Alzheimer’s, a degenerative disease of the brain for which there is no known cure.

Daw May Hnin said that caring for an Alzheimer’s patient takes an enormous emotional and physical toll, and witnessing the deterioration of a loved one causes deep psychological distress for the whole family.

“It was painful just to see my mum. I still remember when she lived with my sister. One day mum left home and got lost for hours. We were so worried,” she said.

As the disease progresses, Alzheimer’s patients become increasingly dependent on caregivers. Behavioural and mood disorders, common in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, are the most disturbing aspect of the disease for many caregivers. These disorders include depression, agitation, wandering and sleep disturbances, she said.

“After suffering from the disease for 10 years, my mum could not control her bodily functions. This was very distressing for my sister, who was mainly looking after her. My mum died a few weeks later.”

Now, 28 years later, Daw May Hnin knows that her mother died of Alzheimer’s disease.

In 1997, she wrote a short article titled “Mum and Alzheimer’s” to raise awareness among Myanmar people about the disease and to describe her mother’s love for her children.

Professor Dr Thant Zin Soe, a neurologist from Yangon General Hospital, said most Myanmar people consider it fairly normal that older people might suffer from gradual memory loss.

“People don’t lose their memory because they get older. What we are seeing is the degeneration of the brain as a result of Alzheimer’s. The aim of a cure would be to slow the gradual decay of memory, but there is no vaccine against it,” he said.

Early signs of Alzheimer’s include memory lapses, especially difficulty in remembering recently learned information. As the disease takes hold, people may forget how to perform simple daily activities. They will eventually become anxious or aggressive, some even wandering away.

Who is potentially at risk for Alzheimer’s? No answer has been found for that question yet. Some people with a family history of Alzheimer’s won’t develop the disease, while others with no family history will succumb to it.

Recent studies have shown that family could also play a role, namely that a person who has a parent or a sibling with the disease is three times more likely to be affected.

Daw May Hnin fears that she will get Alzheimer’s, as her mother did.
Dr Thant Zin Soe suggests that Alzheimer’s is not totally controlled by genetics, but that lifestyle and other factors play an important role in governing the risk for the disease.

Prevention involves a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and regular physical and mental exercise, including keeping the mind active by learning and trying new things.

Dr Thant Zin Soe said reducing the risk for heart disease and diabetes could also reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. He said people who did not exercise their brain enough could be more at risk of contracting Alzheimer’s disease.

Shwegu May Hnin said cures existed for tuberculosis and cancer, but not for Alzheimer’s.

“Sufferers are facing difficulties every day because of memory lapses. We should give them our love and treat them with patience and sympathy. We must not neglect them.”

She said that to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease in Myanmar, family members of victims of the disease, in collaboration with the authorities concerned, should hold regular seminars and share mutual support, as in other countries.

“Sometimes family members of Alzheimer’s sufferers don’t recognise the disease. So some victims might die without getting any treatment, now matter how loving their family is,” she said.