It’s the 21st of September 1994, in Edinburgh, when Alzheimer’s International-an organisation dedicated for research and spreading of awareness for Alzheimer’s disease, celebrated the 1st “World Alzheimer’s’ Day”. The day and the entire month of September is utilised to enhance our knowledge, in one of the most common causes of dementia in elderly-Alzheimer’s’ disease. It dates back to the year 1906, when Dr Alzheimer Aloi named the disease, which he discovered in a lady, he had first encountered in 1901.It’s the 21st of September 1994, in Edinburgh, when Alzheimer’s International-an organisation dedicated for research and spreading of awareness for Alzheimer’s disease, celebrated the 1st “World Alzheimer’s’ Day”. The day and the entire month of September is utilised to enhance our knowledge, in one of the most common causes of dementia in elderly-Alzheimer’s’ disease. It dates back to the year 1906, when Dr Alzheimer Aloi named the disease, which he discovered in a lady, he had first encountered in 1901.In a day and age like ours, good lifestyle practises are comprised. We have breakfast that is instant, processed and easy to eat, on the go, work long hours while sometimes skipping meals, stay up late and grab just a few winks and most importantly, do not find time to exercise or meditate. We are caught up in a race for time, money, power and in general, life itself. When on the one hand technological advancements have made life easier, they have also successfully tipped the scale onto the other side with the plethora of side effects their existence brings with them.
We all forget things in our everyday lives. Be it the misplaced car key or the displaced phone, we all is used to such incidents. But it becomes pathological when one refuses to recognise one’s spouse, forgets the name of his mother or when a person of spectacular IQ once, finds it difficult to add 2 with 2. It’s worse than its sounds, people with Alzheimer’s’ and their caregivers have seen catastrophic consequences of the same. Often the patients are not treated well in their surroundings owing to the lack of awareness about the disease. We have 6.7 million people living with Alzheimer’s today, and each one of them is living in agony.We all forget things in our everyday lives. Be it the misplaced car key or the displaced phone, we all is used to such incidents. But it becomes pathological when one refuses to recognise one’s spouse, forgets the name of his mother or when a person of spectacular IQ once, finds it difficult to add 2 with 2. It’s worse than its sounds, people with Alzheimer’s’ and their caregivers have seen catastrophic consequences of the same. Often the patients are not treated well in their surroundings owing to the lack of awareness about the disease. We have 6.7 million people living with Alzheimer’s today, and each one of them is living in agony.It’s not of surprise that unhealthy lifestyles have paved paths for the onset of different types of diseases, cancer being most prevalent among them. We’ve all heard our friends or family members say that the incidence has exponentially increased over the last decade or two. Of course, there are other causes for cancer such as pollution, food adulteration, lack of hygiene, tobacco and alcohol abuse, and the list goes on.
The disease leaves the option of only palliation of symptoms. The challenge is that, with passage of time, the symptoms become resistant to the medications and the increase in dose leads to intolerable side effects. Talking about achievements, Aducanumab and lecanemab are 2 FDA approved drugs for modifying the underlying pathology of the disease. Well, they are again not cure for Alzheimer’s, but they do decline the rate of progression of the disease and can be useful if used in early phase of the disease. Undoubtedly it is a disease of the elderly, but about 5% people develop the disease in middle age as well. Life comes to a standstill, with Alzheimer’s and things turn haywire. The theme for this year is – “It’s never too early, It’s never too late” (hence the title!). It refers to the early identification of risk factors as well as proficient risk reduction for prevention of the disease, as Alzheimer’s begins 20 years before the development of noticeable symptoms. Unfortunately, it is an incurable, progressive, neurogenerative disorder leading to decrease in cognition, loss of memory and impairment of mental functions. The disease leads to the death of nerve cells, with consequent inflammation and shrinkage of the brain. The early symptoms are difficulty in recalling names, events, lack of enthusiasm, followed by depressive episodes, poor judgement and behavioural changes. In the late stages of the disease, it might be difficult to walk and speak for patients. Some patients leave home and are lost forever. Cancer related mortality is a hot subject of research conducted in various universities the world over and many a time, in collaboration with the WHO. A study on the Indian cancer statistics conducted by The Lancet in year 2012, reported a staggering 5,55,000 cancer deaths in India, in 2010 alone. Also, research led by Dr. Prabhat Jha, the Director for Centre for Global Health Research, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, in year 2012 resulted in a model that is now being used as a reference to compute cancer deaths in India. They employed a unique method of arriving at statistics by extrapolating information derived from studying cancer patterns and mortalities in our country between years 2000 and 2003, using a sample of households. Another notable agency is the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) whose GLOBOCAN database forms the basis for recording cancer incidences in India. Similarly Dr. Jha’s model is used to study cancer mortalities in India. India Today iterated that cancer deaths worldwide were approximately 8.2 million in year 2012. Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has projected that by year 2020, the total number of cancer mortalities in the country will be nearly 17.3 lakh. In year 2016, the highest number of cancer cases was estimated to be of breast cancer followed by lung cancer. With such daunting statistics in hand proven and projected through research, it is of great relief to come to the realization that advanced medical procedures are now available that have been found to increase the human life span by almost 30 to 40 years. Organizations that specialize in palliative care for terminally ill patients are the new go-to centres for families with patients suffering from chronic illnesses.
At last, but not the least, the need of the hour, is to spread information regarding the disease, so that the patients and caregivers are treated with compassion and not hatred. They need empathy and not sympathy. It’s not always the medicine that heals, love and gestures of kindness often do wonders. So, it’s certainly not late. Let’s join hands together to make the world a better place for the ones who are suffering, for we never know, we might be one of them in a few years of time, after all we are all ageing!
Author: Dr Pratyasa Padhi
MBBS, MD Palliative Medicine,
Junior Consultant
Bagchi Karunashraya Palliative Care Center
Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
