Preventing Dementia (1)

Recently I started a short five week online course about “Preventing Dementia”, offered by the University of Tasmania. The course attracted some 3000 participants across the world.

I would like to give you a short summary of each week as I discover new facts. Week one was mostly an orientation to the course and introducing ourselves to other students. We were also invited to take part in a research study examining basic knowledge of dementia.

Week one also presented the current facts on dementia, the most important points are:

·         Dementia now affects about 46.8 million people world wide

·         By 2030, 74 million people will have dementia world wide

·         The cost of dementia by 2030 will be 2 trillion dollars (U.S.) world wide

·         The most common causes of dementia are: Alzheimer’s, Vascular Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia and Lewy Body Disease

·         Alzheimer’s and dementia are not the same thing, dementia is one of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

·         One third of Alzheimer’s disease can be prevented

·         Less than 5% of Alzheimer’s cases are genetic.

·         Frontotemporal dementia has the strongest genetic links and approximately 30-40% of cases are genetically linked.

·         The biggest risk factor for dementia is age; the incidence triples from age 79 to age 85.