DEMENTIA - THE DISEASE MOST FEARED
There has always been a disease most feared of all First of all it was the Black Death and then in the 19thCentury a new type of plague called the cholera which spread through Europe like wildfire and created panic and fear. As these came under control a new fearsome disease emerged - tuberculosis, the wasting disease, described in many novels. It was incurable, fatal and consumed the person infected, from which came the name consumption. However when antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis was developed fear of TB diminished but, as had happened before, a new disease emerged to terrify society – cancer.
There are similarities between cancer and tuberculosis in the minds of the public. Both appeared to consume the individual affected and both were regarded a death sentence. However cancer is now no longer the killer that it was and many cancers are now being regarded as what doctors call long term conditions, like Type II diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, something you have to live with so cancer is not feared in the way that it was although of course life would be much better if you could avoid it than if you developed it.
The new disease that causes dread is dementia. Of course dementia has always been present in society but when there are very few people of advanced age it was never a major challenge but as life expectancy has increased and the number of older people has increased so too has the number of people with dementia and so too has fear of dementia.
The 100 Year Lifeis the title of a stimulating new book which emphasises the fact that an increasing proportion of people will reach the age of a hundred and therefore there will be increasing numbers of people in their nineties, eighties and seventies. Society, and governments, are concerned about the social and economic impact of population ageing but it is important to emphasise that an increase in the number of very elderly people does not necessarily mean an increase in the proportion of people who are highly dependent and it is now clear that we cannot only reduce the risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke and cancer we can also prevent or delay the onset of disability, dementia and frailty, the latter condition being the end result of a number of different conditions compounded by the side-effects of medication and loss of fitness as we will explain.
As doctors and scientists we have been working to help people with dementia and alzehimer’s disease for a hundred years ourselves and until recently we were very positive about what we could do.
We are now very clear that not only care for people with dementia can be better but also that we could reduce the probability of developing dementia by about 25% and our mission is setting up Brainability was to project this positive message to people who are ageing, to their families and friends and to the clinical professions, including our colleagues the doctors many of whom are still confused about dementia and alzehimer’s disease and are unaware of the potential for prevention.
That is the mission of Brainability the organisation we have set up to spread the message – the risk of dementia can be reduced by 25% and any age your physical and mental ability can improve. The image of ageing is negative. We believe this is unscientific and not supported by the evidence and we need to focus on ability and not disability, on the positive and not the negative.
DEMENTIA - THE DISEASE MOST FEARED
There has always been a disease most feared of all First of all it was the Black Death and then in the 19thCentury a new type of plague called the cholera which spread through Europe like wildfire and created panic and fear. As these came under control a new fearsome disease emerged - tuberculosis, the wasting disease, described in many novels. It was incurable, fatal and consumed the person infected, from which came the name consumption. However when antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis was developed fear of TB diminished but, as had happened before, a new disease emerged to terrify society – cancer.
There are similarities between cancer and tuberculosis in the minds of the public. Both appeared to consume the individual affected and both were regarded a death sentence. However cancer is now no longer the killer that it was and many cancers are now being regarded as what doctors call long term conditions, like Type II diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, something you have to live with so cancer is not feared in the way that it was although of course life would be much better if you could avoid it than if you developed it.
The new disease that causes dread is dementia. Of course dementia has always been present in society but when there are very few people of advanced age it was never a major challenge but as life expectancy has increased and the number of older people has increased so too has the number of people with dementia and so too has fear of dementia.
The 100 Year Lifeis the title of a stimulating new book which emphasises the fact that an increasing proportion of people will reach the age of a hundred and therefore there will be increasing numbers of people in their nineties, eighties and seventies. Society, and governments, are concerned about the social and economic impact of population ageing but it is important to emphasise that an increase in the number of very elderly people does not necessarily mean an increase in the proportion of people who are highly dependent and it is now clear that we cannot only reduce the risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke and cancer we can also prevent or delay the onset of disability, dementia and frailty, the latter condition being the end result of a number of different conditions compounded by the side-effects of medication and loss of fitness as we will explain.
As doctors and scientists we have been working to help people with dementia and alzehimer’s disease for a hundred years ourselves and until recently we were very positive about what we could do.
We are now very clear that not only care for people with dementia can be better but also that we could reduce the probability of developing dementia by about 25% and our mission is setting up Brainability was to project this positive message to people who are ageing, to their families and friends and to the clinical professions, including our colleagues the doctors many of whom are still confused about dementia and alzehimer’s disease and are unaware of the potential for prevention.
That is the mission of Brainability the organisation we have set up to spread the message – the risk of dementia can be reduced by 25% and any age your physical and mental ability can improve. The image of ageing is negative. We believe this is unscientific and not supported by the evidence and we need to focus on ability and not disability, on the positive and not the negative.
