World Alzheimer's Day

Find out how you can help raise awareness, plus get the facts on this devastating disease

Alzheimer's Society helplines UK: 0845 300 0336, Northern Ireland: 028 9066 4100

World Alzheimer's Day, 21 September each year, is a day on which Alzheimer associations concentrate their efforts on raising awareness about dementia. There are an estimated 18 million people around the world who currently have dementia.

The theme for World Alzheimer's Day, this year is "We can make a difference". For the UK, it is their 3rd year and Memory Walks will take place at 87 sites around the country.

The number of people with dementia is set to double over the next twenty years. World Alzheimer's Day events can raise essential funds and awareness, which can help to:

• Promote awareness so that people understand the early symptoms of dementia and seek help
• Provide people with dementia and their families with accessible information and support
• Train care staff and develop skills of healthcare professionals to diagnose and manage dementia
• Engage policy makers to provide adequate resources for care and research, now and for the future
• Promote research to develop better treatments and understanding of the disease
• Educate communities to understand and accept people with dementia

There are over 45 countries around the world who will be taking part in various events. These include; Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, India, UK and Zimbabwe.

What is dementia?

The term dementia is used to describe the symptoms that occur when the brain is affected by specific diseases and conditions. It is progressive and in later stages, dementia will have a physical impact on the person affected, such as becoming increasingly dependent on other people. There are over 200 different types of dementia, including vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. The most common is Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's treatment

Unfortunately, there is no cure for Alzheimer's, however there is a number of drug treatments available that can ameliorate the symptoms or slow down the disease progression in some people. Recently, there has been discoveries that the vitamin Folic Acid usually given to pregnant women, could halve the risk of having Alzheimer's, lowering the risk of sufferering from mental deterioration.

Changes to a person's lifestyle might affect the risk of getting Alzheimer's. These include:

• Not smoking
• Reducing the intake of salt and saturated fat
• Taking regualr exercise
• Drinking alcohol in moderation (flavonoids which are found in red wine are a type of antioxidant believed to neutralise some causes of brain damage)
• Eating plenty or fruit and vegetables and eating oily fish once a week
• Having an active social life
  

For more information and support on Alzheimer's disease, click on the links to the right.