Dementia: What Is Ahead For Us?

By Jack Morgan


Dementia is a chronic and progressive syndrome related to various brain illnesses that have a severe effect on critical brain functions such as thinking, memory as well as behavior and the adverse effect on the patient's ability to handle day to day activities.

According to the Fight Dementia Organization, there were an estimated 220 050 people living with dementia in 2007 and the figure is expected to escalate to around 465 460 in 2030. As the future of this epidemic is this grim, based on the figures, there is every need to explore the implications of the impetus created by past and current research endeavors in this health domain with special spotlight on the research and the future of dementia.

Although Alzheimer disease is widely associated with dementia clinical conditions, not all dementia patients develop Alzheimer. Some patients may have dementia while never developed Alzheimer. Dementia researches that try to associate Alzheimer usually show a bell shaped result from patients under study.

The only challenge that researchers face is inadequate funding. If, at all, they are going to achieve their ultimate goal, then funding is going to be inevitable. This funding will help support research into neurodegenerative diseases, the risk factors involved, plus many other things that involve dementia.

The observed differences between people who score low in cognitive tests and don't develop dementia poses future research questions. Dementia study is also complicated in a way because it largely depends on memory tests. Age, sex, race and education are also factors that can show differences in cognitive memory tests regardless of whether the patients have developed dementia or not.

Cognitive impairment might not worry patients. It might even not show signs of worsening conditions but can be a base for worsening dementia. Before you know it, mild memory impairment can lead to serious Alzheimer and serious dementia even if the patients did not show worrying memory tests during research studies or during clinical diagnosis.

Furthermore, some researchers believe that a lot is known about Alzheimer's disease than what's known about dementia's causes or treatment. However, despite all that, clinical research on dementia d is giving researchers important clues and ideas about the possible causes and treatment for dementia.

Current dementia and Alzheimer management don't take into account the different categories of patients. Sometimes every patient has a unique mental condition and that will require custom management. Mental conditions worsen with age. Therefore, patients are not always of the same age and custom dementia management is justified.

Finally, it is said that some Australian researchers found a possible natural remedy for dementia. They discovered a natural substance in the body cells known as "Spermidine" which they say can aid in memory loss, which is a major concern for patients suffering from dementia. The concentration of spermidine decreases as one gets older. Spermidine was administered to specimen of mammals such as rats and mice because they have similar memory functions to human beings. So they're hoping that the results will be transferred to humans someday in the near future.




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