There are no other diseases – even cancers – that send chills down the spines of older people than Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias. Every year, there are about 10 million new cases. Someone in the world is diagnosed with them every three seconds, and there are over 55 million people around the world who live with these conditions.
This figure is expected to almost double every two decades, with an estimated 78 million in 2030 and 139 million in two decades later. There are an estimated 150,000 Alzheimer’s patients in Israel. Yet, exciting new things are happening in this neurological field – and they offer good news: For example, a promising new monoclonal antibody that clears amyloid – a protein found in our brains and bodies that sticks together and forms tangles that become plaques in the brain – and cleans them out of the insides of vessels in the brain.
Another encouraging development is the development of biomarkers that can diagnose some of the diseases that cause cognitive decline and treat them in time. As dementia can result from clogged blood vessels in the brain; uncontrolled hypertension and diabetes; a lack of physical and brain exercises such as puzzles and crosswords; a diet of over-processed food, and even a shortage of vitamin B12 – it’s important to start this process early. Not all dementias involve Alzheimer’s.
Prof. David Tanne, director of the Stroke and Cognition Institute at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus and imme.