What do you know about dementia?
Here, in the UK, nearly a million people are currently living with dementia. This figure is predicted to increase to around 1.4 million by 2040. Worldwide, some 55 million are living with dementia. That figure is predicted to rise to around 150 million by 2030.
More women than men are affected by dementia. There are reports that the risks for dementia affect Black and Asian populations more than white people.
There is no cure for dementia.
The main factors determining the incidence of dementia are genetics and age, but the Lancet Commission on Dementia produced a model of 14 potentially modifiable risks over the life span and suggested that up to 45% of dementia cases could be prevented if these risks factors could be eliminated.
These 14 risk factors are: (early-life) less education; ( mid-life) hearing loss, depression, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, traumatic brain injury, smoking, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and excessive alcohol; (later-life) social isolation, air pollution and visual loss.
For six and a half years, I have been a volunteer participant in a research project called CHARIOT PRO – an abbreviation for Cognitive Health in Ageing Register: Investigational, Observational, and Trial studies in dementia research: Prospective Readiness cOhort Study. The study is based at Imperial College in London and led by the world-renowned Professor Lefkos Midd
First, I was a member of a study looking at the possible connection between dementia and a protein in the brain called beta amyloid. Then, I was a participant in a study looking at the possible role in dementia of a different protein in the brain called tau. I have just volunteered for a three-year longitudinal study.
Today we had a seminar at Imperial College to hear about the latest thinking on dementia and the current plans for the CHARIOT PRO study.
If you would like to be involved, go here.