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Video length: 8 min.
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September 21 marks World Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Day. Evil of recent years, falling mainly on our years, this neurodegenerative disease could not have a treatment for another five or ten years, according to specialists.
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The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease is constantly increasing. In France, a new case is diagnosed every two minutes and twenty seconds, or 225,000 cases each year. “There are 900,000 people with this disease in France, but it is a global phenomenon, with 35.6 million patients worldwide”, specifies journalist Nicolas Carvalho on the 11 p.m. set, Tuesday September 21. According to the World Health Organization, this global figure could almost double every twenty years. The disease mainly affects the elderly: 15% of those over 80 are affected, and 40% of those over 90. Two out of three patients are women.
There is currently no treatment for this disease, which is not hereditary contrary to popular belief (only 1 to 2% of cases). However, according to the Alzheimer Research Foundation, prevention plays a role, since one in three cases could be avoided through regular physical activity, a healthy diet, as well as intellectual and social stimulation. When the disease occurs, the management of patients is also decisive.
“I do not cure a disease, I cure it even less, but I care for people and their loved ones, in the ecosystem in which they live, and that is what is important: starting from the fact that it is people who think in spite of everything, who feel, who have emotions. It is necessary to start from a presumption of competence, and there will always be an answer, even if the vocabulary is less present, even if the presence to the other is more complicated “, explains Dr Véronique Lefebvre des Nouettes, geriatric psychiatrist and author of the book What to do about Alzheimer’s.
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