You are probably completely on your own as how to prevent dementia/Alzheimers. We would need something like this if we ever are going to solve stroke problems.
The Global Fight Against Dementia
Yves Joanette
Etienne C. Hirsch
Michel Goldman
CREDITS: PHILIPPE ATHLAN (Y.J.); Jean-Philippe Pariente (E.C.H.); ARNAUD GHYS (M.G.)
Very few of those reading this editorial
will have had no contact with the devastating consequences of dementia.
Dementia,
caused by a variety of neurodegenerative
conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, occurs in 35% of individuals
over 80 years
of age (1).
The disease ravages cognitive abilities, affecting not only the person
with dementia but also the lives of family members
acting as their caregivers. Despite decades of
research aimed at identifying the mechanisms underpinning the
neurodegenerative
processes causing dementia, and despite the fact
that the cascade of events characterizing neurodegeneration is now known
to occur decades before any clinical
manifestations, there are still no therapies that can prevent or modify
the course of
dementia. The current health and welfare systems of
the developed world are not adapted to deal with the huge health and
social
pressures wrought by dementia. Because of the aging
of the populations in the developed world, the number of individuals
with
dementia is calculated to double by 2050 in Group
of Eight (G8) countries (2). Furthermore, in low- and middle-income countries, the number of those affected by dementia is set to quadruple by 2050
as people live longer due to a decline in infectious diseases (2).
The scale of this impending health disaster requires a concerted global
effort to tackle dementia at all levels. The World
Health Organization (WHO) is set to sponsor the
First Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia in March
2015
in Geneva, Switzerland. The principal goal is to
develop a global action plan to address the challenges of dementia using
as a basis the discussions that have taken place in
a series of events in the past year.
In 2012, WHO recognized dementia as a global public health priority (1).
Until then, multiple actions were launched by national governments
(such as those of France, UK, USA, and Canada) and by
the European Union (for example, the Joint
Programming Initiative on Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Innovative
Medicines
Initiative). Although some progress has been made,
it is now clear that a coordinated global effort is needed. The first
step
toward a concerted global effort was taken by the
UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron in 2013, who as president of the G8 at
that time, called for a G8 Summit on Dementia in
December 2013 in London. It was at this summit that Global Action
Against
Dementia (GAAD) was launched (http://bit.ly/12Fre3T).
Dennis Gillings, a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, was
appointed as the Global Dementia Envoy to coordinate
the international efforts of GAAD. A World Dementia
Council was appointed to support the Envoy and to oversee GAAD, with
concurrent
support from WHO and the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD). Composed of 18 members from nine
countries
representing funding agencies, governments,
international organizations, industry, academia, and patients’
associations, the
Council met three times in 2014 with support from
the UK government. Specifically, the Council is focusing on five
priority
areas: (1) integrated development (addressing the
global regulatory barriers to drug development, encouraging innovative
collaborative
research, ensuring effective public policy-making
governance), (2) financial innovations and incentives, (3) open science
and data, (4) care of patients with dementia, and
(5) dementia risk reduction (http://bit.ly/12FsdRR).
More at link.
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