‘What is good for the heart is also good for the brain’, according to experts on dementia, yet more than a quarter of the British public are unable to correctly identify any potentially modifiable risk factor for developing dementia.
New figures released by the Office of National Statistics show that for the first time, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are the leading cause of death for England and Wales. Of the 529,655 deaths registered during 2015, dementia accounted for 61,686 (11.6%).1 Dementia affects 850,000 people in the UK, with that number predicted to rise to over one million by 2025 as the population ages.2
With no treatments currently available to affect the course of the underlying diseases, global efforts to develop disease-modifying treatments have begun to accelerate. Alzheimer’s Research UK’s recent report, Treatments of Tomorrow: Preparing for breakthroughs in dementia3 states that “dementia research is in the most promising position for years.” It points out that there are now double the number of clinical trials for dementia, compared to three years ago, with over 150 interventional phase I-III clinical trials.
Although this is still relatively few, compared to clinical trials for cancer (where there are over 17,000), the charity is optimistic that we are entering a “hopeful new era for dementia treatment”.3 It points out that the UK Government has committed to finding a disease-modifying treatment for dementia by 2025, while the Prime Minister’s Challenge has made dementia research a priority in the UK.3
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