Contributed by: Dennis Fortier, President, Medical Care Corporation
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The Alzheimer's Society in the UK recently published the results of their survey exploring the degree to which the average person understands this disease.
While there was no surprise that the average citizen is not aware of recent scientific advances, certain findings were somewhat alarming. In that regard, the fact that a third of respondents thought Alzheimer's disease was an inevitable part of normal aging was particularly illuminating.
Additionally, about a quarter of all respondents were not aware that risk factors can be managed to reduce the likelihood of dementia. Given this low level of understanding, one can easily see why there is not a greater proactive approach by aging patients to engage their physicians in discussions about memory loss.
In the near term, the greatest health care advance we can facilitate in the Alzheimer's field will be driven by education. If we had a well-informed public visiting enlightened physicians where cognitive health was regularly and objectively monitored, we would identify memory disorders much earlier and intervene with greater clinical success.
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I absolutely LOVE your last paragraph. This is a world that I would also like to see. Memory health should be considered as any other thing that should be monitored and for which, if there are issues, medical treatment is available. But first the stigma against dementia must be broken.
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