Dementia Preventability

Dementia is a world-wide feared degenerative disease that affects 47 million victims globally, and that number is projected to increase to 131 million by 2050. In 2015 the subsequent cost of care reached a staggering $818 billion globally, which is a phenomenally large amount of money, and that figure will increase exponentially as the number of sufferers increases perennially. Merely imagining the amount of time and money that will go into caring for the poor souls suffering from the disease, puts me in a state of malcontent. So therefore, today I will tell you what exactly dementia is and 9 salient factors that you should adhere to in order to avoid being the 1 in that 131 million.

Dementia is a blanket term to describe a series of diseases and their effect on the cognitive function of the brain. Although each case of dementia is unique, there are certain ubiquitous symptoms that are found in virtually every case, for instance: memory loss, difficulty with speech, reduction of spatial awareness and poor orientation. Further symptoms arise depending on the person, and what part of the brain is diseased. Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia and is responsible for causing brain cells to die which lead to the symptoms mentioned above. Dementia is described as a progressive disease, meaning that the symptoms gradually become more severe as time goes on, so by the time someone's life is coming to an end, they may not even be sure of who they are and so mentally constrained, that they will not even be able to ask those around them for an answer.

But there is hope, professor Gill Livingston, of University College London, recently conducted a study and discovered 9 risk factors that can be monitored and controlled that will reduce the risk of contracting dementia in old age. They are as follows:

Mid-life hearing loss - responsible for 9% of the risk
Failing to complete secondary education - 8% of the risk
Smoking - 5% of the risk
Failing to seek treatment for depression - 4%
Physical inactivity - 3%
Social isolation - 2%
High blood pressure - 2%
Obesity - 1%
Type 2 diabetes - 1%

Altogether this accounts for 35% of the risk, the other 65% is thought to be unchangeable. Some of you may be wondering why mid-life hearing loss is such a prevalent factor. Well, according to the study, one of the most serious factors that led to dementia was social isolation. It only accounts for 2% here but there are many things that cause people to become withdrawn from society, such as hearing loss, depression and to an extent, obesity. All these things are linked together and the less people talk to each to other face to face, the less neural networks the brain makes and the less it is exercised which leads to its eventual degradation as it becomes weak. Smoking affects this because it reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood and in general eviscerates the immune system, making the brain more susceptible to disease. Obesity and type 2 diabetes affects blood glucose levels which may increase the risk of brain cells dying off.

Finally, secondary education. One of the most effective way to fight off dementia is to carry on learning and to continue creating new neural pathways to make sure the brain is active. People who fail to complete secondary education generally don't go on to do things that require a lot of brain power so over the years their brain becomes weaker and weaker until eventually it finds itself in a state where it begins deteriorating. The study found that those who continued learning throughout their lives were able to stave off dementia for longer than those who did not.

Thank you for reading and I urge you take at least one of these risk factors into consideration as you leave this page. If you would like to read the study for yourselves I will leave the link below.

This has been Timothy K. Bosse, wishing you a happy, dementia-free day!


Citations:
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/info/20007/types_of_dementia/1/what_is_dementia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40655566
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)31363-6/fulltext#cesec30

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