Many people are confused about the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer’s. According to Health professionals, Dementia is the general term which describes a range of progressive neurological disorders affecting the brain. On the other hand, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of Dementia caused by plaques and tangles formation in the brain.
According to the Alzheimer’s Society, more than 850,000 people in the United Kingdom live with dementia, while more than 500,000 people have Alzheimer’s. The UK is not the only country suffering from this unforgiving neurological disorder, in the United States alone, there are around 5.5 million people suffering from Alzheimer’s.
What makes Dementia and Alzheimer’s even more alarming is the projected aggressive increase in its percentage in the coming years. In addition, since its discovery in the year 1906, Dementia nor Alzheimer’s disease still has no known cure.
Professor Bard De Strooper. a world-renowned Belgian scientist and the director of the Dementia Research Institute at University College London since 2016, sees a hopeful future.
The neuroscientist and researcher lead a team of 270 researchers from six other universities in hope of finding an effective way to treat the cause of dementia rather than curing its symptoms. The top-caliber neuroscientist believes that researchers will have invented a cure for Dementia 10 years from now or even earlier!
“I think we will have a cure. In 10 years we will have a cure. I hope earlier.” Professor De Strooper shared in an interview.
Although the esteemed professor has not mentioned any specific treatment that could be ready within 2028, Professor De Strooper says that the future looks promising. Neuroscientists plan on stopping the dangerous build-up of proteins in the brains of patients with Dementia.
Specifically, experts would like to treat people showing the early stages of dementia before it starts to cause a severe and irreparable damage to our brains.
“You start to see biochemical changes about 20 years before dementia manifests itself so if you could stabilize the disease in this insidious phase then that would be very good, that would also be a cure… It’s a bit like with cancer, you don’t hope to treat the patient when cancer has taken over the body.” The esteemed professor and neuroscientist explained.
Professor De Strooper shared this information less than a week after other scientists of his field informed the public that they can predict dementia 10 years before it begins.
The neuroscientist says that new drugs can slow down the aggressive progression of dementia, and the earlier it is diagnosed then the more effective treatments will be.
This will be made possible by a simple blood test. Researchers led by Copenhagen University said that conducting a simple blood test and examining it with respect to a person’s age and sex could predict their chances of acquiring dementia.
“Reduction of risk factors for dementia may have the potential to delay or prevent [the] development of the disease.” Professor Frikke-Schmidt, another neuroscientist believes in the great potential of their new plan in asserting dementia.
Indeed, we still have a long way in trying to find a cure for the unforgiving Dementia and Alzheimer’s, hopefully, 10 years from now the study led by professor Bard De Strooper will be able to successfully address the early stages of Dementia before it further develops in an unforgiving disease.
As wise men say, prevention is always better than cure. It is better to target health problems that are still developing rather than dealing with it when it already brought detrimental problems!
Source: Dementia UK