Currently, there are two ways to support Alzheimer’s patients disease in China: use of complex herbal formulas based on the traditional methods of Chinese medicine, or administration of an alkaloid drug, called huperzine A, derived from the herb huperzia. This drug inhibits the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, allowing more of it available for brain functions, including memory. Huperzine A has passed Phase I trials in the U.S. and it may become available as a prescription drug at the end of this decade.

In analyzing the Chinese medical therapies for Alzheimer’s, it is important to recognize the difficulty in distinguishing this condition from other cases of Senile Dementia, mainly atherosclerotic dementia. A firm diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is made by extensive procedures that might include a CT scan, MRI, and EEG. In most cases, such procedures are not routinely done in China; therefore, the symptom pattern is used as the diagnostic criteria. Some reversible diseases produce dementia and even severe depression may produce dementia, so the treatments that are reported to be successful for dementia might not succeed in actual cases of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Alzheimer’s disease

USING DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS
Despite the fact that brain disorders can be described generally by the theoretical framework of traditional Chinese medicine, many physicians working in China continue to rely on differentiating cases. The particular disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, may occur either from a variety of different causes or from a basic cause in a variety of constitutional situations. The primary differential categories used by Chinese doctors to describe senile dementia are:

1. Spleen qi deficiency, with phlegm and stagnating blood obstructing the orifices to the brain.
2. Liver qi stagnation, with entanglement of qi, accumulation of phlegm, and stagnating blood.
3. Hot phlegm clogging the orifices.
4. Spleen and kidney yang deficiency, with phlegm and stagnating blood obstructing the orifices to the brain.
5. Deficiency of liver and kidney yin, with phlegm and stagnating blood obstructing the orifices and with generation of internal wind.
6. Qi and blood stagnation, obstructing the orifices to the brain.

According to the category that seems most appropriate, one may tonify qi, yin, and/or yang, disperse qi and blood, and resolve phlegm accumulation. The tonic herbs to be used are the same as those commonly found in
traditional formulas to treat problems of aging: ginseng, astragalus, atractylodes, dioscorea, rehmannia, lycium fruit, cistanche, and morinda. For unclogging the orifices, acorus, polygala, arisaema, typhonium, and alum are
used in various combinations. Acorus and polygala are said to restore proper communication between the kidney and heart;. Alum and arisaema are considered remedies for "mental phlegm." Sedative herbs are sometimes included in prescriptions for dementia, including zizyphus, fu-shen, biota, dragon bone, and oyster shell.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, the depletion of kidney-which is the dominant cause of symptoms associated with aging-can be largely overcome by regular ingestion of either Rehmannia Six Formula (Liu Wei Di Huang Wan) or Rehmannia Eight Formula (Ba Wei Di Huang Wan). Stagnation of blood can be limited by daily ingestion of salvia wine, or some other salvia-based herbal preparation. The obstruction by phlegm can be largely overcome by reducing fat in the diet and by using herbal formulas that aid the digestive process, such as Six Major Herbs Combination (Liu Jun Zi Tang) or a formula that contains herbs such as crataegus and shen-chu. Saponins from ginseng have been shown to improve memory function.