In the US capital, the largest international event dedicated to dementia was held - the annual conference of the International Alzheimer's Association (Alzheimer's Association International Conference).
At the conference, doctors and researchers from different countries of the world spoke, who acquainted colleagues with the latest discoveries and achievements in this field, according to the Internet edition for girls and women from 14 to 35 years old Pannochka. net Scope of the problem.
To date, the world has about 36 million people who live with Alzheimer's disease - a disease that accounts for 60-80% of all cases of dementia. According to the Center of Mental Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Science, in our country, 4,6% of people over 70 years old suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and after 80 years almost one in six Russians is affected by this disease. The number of patients by 2040 may increase by 2-3 times.
Only in the United States live 5.3 million people with this diagnosis, of which 5.1 million are elderly people aged 65 and over. Scientists expect that in the next 10 years the number of patients in the US will grow to 7.1 million, and by 2050 this figure will be 13.8 million.
This year, about 700,000 Americans with Alzheimer's disease will die from this disease and its consequences - this is the 6th preventable cause of death in the US. At the same time, modern medicine still does not have a sufficient arsenal of means to prevent, treat or at least slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Helen Snyder, Research Director of the Alzheimer's Association, says: "There is scientific evidence that the pathological changes in the brain in Alzheimer's disease begin a dozen years before we see the symptoms of the disease. This underscores the need to create preventive therapy that will affect the protein deposits in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease ".
Today, it is necessary to better understand not only the mechanisms of development, but also the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. If we know the same "triggers" that trigger the disease, we can more effectively prevent it. This is the general opinion of experts expressed during the last conference in Washington.
Risk factors for Alzheimer's disease.
Age is the main, well-known even to non-professionals risk factor of Alzheimer's disease. The vast majority of patients - people over 65 years of age. According to the Alzheimer's Association, the risk of Alzheimer's disease doubles every 5 years after reaching the 65-year threshold, and by the age of 85 this risk is about 50%.
Let's talk about other factors known to science.
Genetic risk factors.
Of great importance is the presence of certain genes, such as apolipoprotein E-e4 (APOE-e4). Experts believe that at the moment, not all genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease have been discovered, and new data will be added in this area.
Sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity.
AAIC expert Dr. Tina Hoang from the Northern California Institute for Research and Education in San Francisco presented her findings that tell us that lack of physical activity and sitting in front of the screen at the age of 18-30 is a risk factor for cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer's, in old age.
Dr. Hoang's study included 3,200 adults who were enrolled in the project at the age of 18-30, and then observed for 25 years. The analysis showed that those participants who watched television for at least 4 hours a day or did not move much, after 50 years had significantly worse memory and information processing performance than active participants.
Based on the results of his work, Dr. Hoang and her colleagues recommend that all young and middle-aged people pay attention to their way of life and regularly engage in physical education. In their opinion, the lack of physical activity, which distinguishes the current generation of "Western" people, can result in serious cognitive problems in the distant future, from which the patients themselves, their relatives, and society as a whole will suffer.
Indeed, our young generation has something to think about.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Studies conducted in previous years have shown that people with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's and other dementias. But, as Dr. Rachel Whitmer, an employee of the Kaiser-Permente Research Institute in Oakland, says, a rare type 1 diabetes mellitus can also affect this risk.
At the conference, Dr. Whitmer presented the results of her new study, which was devoted specifically to this issue. Scientists included in their study 490,344 Americans over the age of 60 who had no signs of dementia before. A total of 344 of these participants were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
After 12 years of follow-up, it turned out that in people with type 1 diabetes, the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is 83% higher than the rest, and if you take into account factors such as hypertension, peripheral artery disease and stroke, the risk still remains 61% higher. When scientists excluded from the analysis of participants with type 2 diabetes, this indicator was 93% (taking into account the three listed diseases - 73%).
Dr. Whitmer notes that the treatment of type 1 diabetes is very complex today and requires constant self-monitoring, and for people with cognitive impairment this is a difficult problem. She says that doctors should pay special attention to this category of patients.
Loneliness and depression.
Loneliness in old age is associated with depression, but can it predispose to Alzheimer's? Dr. Nancy J Donovan of the Brigham Women's Hospital in the United States answers this question in the affirmative.
Her team presented to AAIC the results of her study, which involved 8,300 elderly people over 64 years old, taken from the US Health and Retirement Study 1998-2010.
Every 2 years, researchers collected information about the level of depression, loneliness, physical health, cognitive status, social relationships. About 17% of participants reported experiencing loneliness and about half of them had signs of depression.
Over a 12-year observation period, it was found that the most lonely subjects show a 20% faster decline in intelligence compared to peers who did not complain of loneliness. Participants with depression lost the power of their minds faster.
Commenting on the results of the work, Dr. Donovan said: "We found that single people experience a much faster decline in intelligence compared to those who continue to communicate and maintain social ties. Although loneliness and depression are closely related, loneliness in itself affects the person's intellectual abilities. It is very important to know and take into account when developing new means for the prevention of dementia in the elderly ".
Mental abilities in childhood and work.
In April 2015, foreign publications wrote about a new study, the authors of which revealed a link between the complexity of work and the risk of atrophy of the anterior parts of the brain - a type of dementia that does not affect memory (in contrast to Alzheimer's).
Such research raises the question that the individual risk of dementia may depend on a person's mental abilities in his youth and the characteristics of his labor during his life. This was emphasized by the authors at a conference in Washington.
Dr. Serhiy Dekhtyar, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, reported in his report about the results of a new curious study. He and his colleagues demonstrated that high intelligence in childhood and mental labor throughout life contribute to preserving the cognitive abilities of a person in old age.
For this, Dr.
Degtyar analyzed a group of 7 574 participants in the Swedish study Uppsala Birth Cohort Study. The analysis showed that in those with low school achievement, the risk of dementia after age 65 was 21% higher than the excellent pupils, and intellectual labor during life reduced the risk of dementia by 23%.
More details about the results of this study can be found in our article "Excellents less likely to suffer from dementia" on July 22 of this year.
medbe. en.