(Adnkronos) - “Possiamo dire che oggi la malattia di Alzheimer fa meno paura, in quanto sappiamo che possiamo prevenirla. Infatti, abbiamo già evidenze di un'incidenza complessivamente ridotta perché il controllo dei fattori di rischio riesce a spostare la comparsa di questa condizione correlata all'invecchiamento della popolazione”. E’ quanto dichiarato da Alessandro Padovani, socio fondatore e membro Consiglio Direttivo Airalzh Onlus, presidente della Sin e direttore clinica di Neurologia Asst Spedali Civili di Brescia, a margine dell’evento organizzato da Airalzh, l’Associazione Italiana Ricerca Alzheimer Onlus, in occasione del proprio decennale di fondazione.
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00:00We can certainly say that today the Alzheimer's disease is less scary, we know that we can
00:09prevent it, we already have evidence of a comprehensively reduced incidence because
00:15the control of the risk factors manages to move the appearance of this condition,
00:21unfortunately correlated, to the aging of the population.
00:24What are the risk factors?
00:26There are really many, the last of which have been discovered and recently relaunched,
00:33a bad cholesterol, for example, an uncontrolled sight impairment, deafness, especially if
00:40not treated, but then there are cardiovascular risk factors, hygiene, in particular
00:46oral hygiene, the microbiota, when in some way solicited by the wrong diet, alcohol,
00:53cigarette smoke, atmospheric pollution, IPM 2.5, that is, heavy metals, there are many
01:01factors that in a concept of global health also interest Alzheimer's disease.
01:07In fact, the fragility of the brain or the vulnerability of the brain is expressed by increasing
01:14the risk of getting sick, so everything we can do to safeguard the health of the brain
01:20also serves to counteract Alzheimer's disease.
01:22There are several aspects that the figure of the caregiver is interesting, first of all
01:27it interests a large part of the population, if it is true, as it is true, that there are
01:312 million patients with cognitive decline, half of whom have Alzheimer's disease,
01:37we can believe that there is at least another million people involved, then if we enlarge
01:43the average family, let's say that this number multiplies by 2, by 3, and those who have not
01:50had in some way a relative affected by this condition, those who have not taken care of
01:55patients with cognitive decline, I believe that in Italy the numbers would be surprisingly
02:01very high.
02:02Having said that, I believe that on the figure of the caregiver, first of all, a coping,
02:10an activity of taking charge, not only of the patient but of the caregiver, that the
02:14caregiver is flanked by specialist figures, not by single doctors or by single psychologists,
02:21but there are multidisciplinary teams.
02:23I believe that the government is moving in this direction, moving in the territories,
02:27in the community hospitals and in the health centers, these multiprofessional teams, and
02:33giving answers that on paper seem to be the correct answers.
02:39And it is never enough, honestly, because in the end, managing a patient with Alzheimer's
02:44disease, when the disease complicates or disrupts the behavior, the words, I mean, and the acts
02:51become always very difficult to predict.
02:54The fact remains that today there is still a lot to do in this direction.
02:58The drugs could certainly help us reduce this global burden, this weight.
03:05I remind everyone that there are 200,000 new patients every year.
03:10It is a higher number than the number of patients who get cancer and it is an equal number of
03:16patients who develop Alzheimer's disease.