Holistic and Conventional Approaches in Alzheimer’s Therapy: Exploring Herbal, Synthetic, and Alternative Interventions

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurological condition characterized by a steady and progressive impairment of different domains or sectors of cognition, such as language, learning and memory, attention, and social skills. Kraepelin used the term Alzheimer’s disease to describe the condition before it was first described by a German psychiatrist known as Alois Alzheimer in 1906. A study conducted in 2023 shows that 6.7 million of the American citizens aged 65 and over have Alzheimer’s disease. It is also possible that by 2060, 13.8 million sufferers of Alzheimer’s sufferers will exist unless significant progress is achieved in the field of science to prevent, treat, or cure the disease. Tau and amyloid-β (Aβ) are the defining molecules of Alzheimer’s disease and form neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. The main clinical aim of Alzheimer disease is to reduce its development, because there is currently no treatment. Synthetic preparations, which only attenuate symptoms, include cholinesterase inhibitors and NMDA receptor inhibitors (donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine, and memantine). Unlike synthetic drugs, herbal medicines are more flexible over time and produce fewer side effects, such as inability to sleep, developing withdrawal symptoms, and adversely affecting other vital organs that are common with synthetic drugs. The first objective of this paper was to establish a review of how AD is being treated by searching databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, ResearchGate, Mdpi, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Willey, and many other websites.