Dementia is the next global pandemic, says Aids prevention pioneer

There's not enough awareness of how bad the problem is," warns Piot, a global health expert and director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"One in three of us will develop the disease – 135 million people by 2050, according to Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI)– while its worldwide health and social-care cost in 2010 was estimated at £400bn.

Our ageing population means it will get worse, yet no one is ready for the impact of dementia, he says. "We're on a very bad trajectory … one of the achievements of civilisation, society and technology is that we live a longer and healthier life."

Dementia is the next global pandemic, says Aids prevention pioneer

Prof. Piot is a respected microbilogist whose achievemts include the discovery of the Ebola virus and important work in stemming the global spread of AIDS.

His warning on the ravages of mass dementia comes at a time when there is still opportunity to tackle the problem. As lifespans increase in developed nations and old diseases that took down people at earlier ages are eliminated, there is a greater "window of opportunity" for as-yet-uncured maladies such as dementia to spread. In "ageing societies" such as much of Europe and East Asia where the old will soon come to occupy a much greater percentage of the population, the problem of mass dementia has the potential to blindside entire nations.

Dementia is complex disease regarding which much is unknown. More research is necessary, and a deeper understanding of the relationships among the social, cognitive, and neurological aspects of the malady. Could dementia be caused in part by toxins in food, the environment, industrial processes and products, etc.? Its a question many in industry do not want investigated too closely. Yet if one in three will experience dementia, don't we owe it to ourselves to find out what exactly is in the food, water, and products we consume? There are millions of chemical compounds that didn't even exist 50 years ago, which have now become part of our lives and, quite literally, our bodies. Very little is known about their long-term effects and their interactions with each other.

Prof. Piot recommends an international and cooperative approach; I agree this may be a good solution if implemented cautiously. Personally, like many on ATS, I share a healthy skepticism of globalist/internationalist interventions in private life and the territory of sovereign nations. This is especially tricky when it comes to dementia, which is a mental (and perhaps social) as well as physical. Yet the effectiveness of cooperative international efforts combatting epidemics is beyond dispute, and must be an option on the table.

The first step is to raise awareness of dementia and the signs of its onset, and to remove the stigma and denial that so often prevents people from noticing the disease. This is a problem that cannot be ignored.

reply to post by Never Despise

Could dementia be caused in part by toxins in food, the environment, industrial processes and products, etc.? Its a question many in industry do not want investigated too closely. Yet if one in three will experience dementia, don't we owe it to ourselves to find out what exactly is in the food, water, and products we consume? There are millions of chemical compounds that didn't even exist 50 years ago, which have now become part of our lives and, quite literally, our bodies. Very little is known about their long-term effects and their interactions with each other.

This is what bothers me.....what the hell is in our food and what is the long term effect on us.
They seem to be able to give a fairly excuseable reason for the increase in Dementia, at least for some, it might pacify them.

But what if........what if it has nothing to do with their so-called excuses and more to do with our environment, the air we breath, the water we drink.
Our food supply.... what cattle, chicken, etc. are fed , the processes they go through to get them to the markets.

Some might inject GMO's long term effects into this scenario

It's a scary idea but a possibility

To everything else, add prions. These very weird 'folding proteins' are neither alive nor dead, are impossible to cook out of food, and thanks to farmers who didn't want to waste downer cattle and made cannibals out of vegetarian livestock, are now probably infesting our food supply. The fact that the symptoms may take up to 50 years to manifest mean that we'll likely never be able to find the root cause, and modern medicine having its head in the sand to any new idea that threatens their assurance of intellectual superiority compared to the whistle-blowers, it will take decades longer to see the truth than it otherwise should need.

It's time to have a real conversation about voluntary suicide when things get bad enough, take the 'sin' aspect out of it (thanks, church) and realize that sometimes, life isn't worth living anymore.

The US program "Frontline" had an excellent program on voluntary suicide a few months ago, I highly recommend not only the coverage itself, but the information therein. There are worse things than dying. Having a beating heart without any memory is one of them.

The Suicide Plan

reply to post by Never Despise


Important stuff. Thanks. I've been ranting about dementia and the chronic disease pandemic for years. Here's one from March 2012.

Dementia is pandemic - few countries are untouched. Now, MRI imaging with mathematical modeling can predict when and how a person's dementia will progress, simply by modeling "prion-like" toxic proteins' spread from neuron to neuron. Disease progression involves "speech impediments, memory loss, behavioral peculiarities, and so on."

Ideally, this technology will allow personalized treatments tailored to each individual - as well as let people make their own choices in planning ahead.

Worst case scenario, the information will be used for eugenics-flavored Minority Report-styled interventions - and provide a rationale for depopulation culling.

Another tidbit from that thread:

Research shows that many people who show significant physical degeneration in the brain on autopsy DID NOT HAVE DEMENTIA SYMPTOMS in life. It's all about "cognitive reserve."

reply to post by signalfire

It's time to have a real conversation about voluntary suicide when things get bad enough, take the 'sin' aspect out of it (thanks, church) and realize that sometimes, life isn't worth living anymore.

People don't hesitate to put their animals down when they start to suffer.
Yet, we keep our loved ones hanging on despite their miserable pain

Not belittling humanity but I have unfortunately seen loved ones suffer that we knew without a doubt was only going to get worse....and they did. So we ALL suffered thru the hell.
And when they died, we were relieved not only for ourselves but for our loved one who was going through the physical torture of pain.

Dying is the easy part
Losing a loved one is the hard part, hence why we tend to keep the sick hanging on despite their pain & misery -- and of course it's unethical to be able to release them from their hell
Although Dr. Kevorkian's way was frowned upon, I can see where he was helping families

Death is the answer some times when there is nothing left to do for them.

reply to post by Never Despise


Welcome to Dementia Village




Just what are we gonna do with em

They can go where ever they want to go.

Well except out into the real world, but you can go to shops and eat at restaurants all in the village as well as feel the seasons its open air and space.

reply to post by snarky412


The problem is not only the food, but the array of big pharma medications that are prescribed to people like candy.

Statin drugs reduce cholesterol but also cholesterol is one of the most important substance that the brain needs for proper function.

Satins are a 30 billion industry soon to become with the new guidelines set last month a 70 billion dollar profit since statin has been given away like candy Alzheimer has increased.

No doctor in the US will ever come forward and tell that is a link between medications and the deterioration of the body and organs.

With the way things are run this days for the benefits of corporate profits I would not be surprised that the information given by the individual in the OP link will be use by big pharma to come out with more crafty ways to make more money with more magic pills.

reply to post by Never Despise


This is very true - there are a few issues I see right away regarding this. One of them is the effect of dementia patients who hide their dementia but remain in positions of power. The next is the effect dementia patients would have on the economy - especially of their kids, who may not have the resources to handle it this time around.

Never Despise
His warning on the ravages of mass dementia comes at a time when there is still opportunity to tackle the problem. As lifespans increase in developed nations and old diseases that took down people at earlier ages are eliminated, there is a greater "window of opportunity" for as-yet-uncured maladies such as dementia to spread. In "ageing societies" such as much of Europe and East Asia where the old will soon come to occupy a much greater percentage of the population, the problem of mass dementia has the potential to blindside entire nations.

Dementia is complex disease regarding which much is unknown. More research is necessary, and a deeper understanding of the relationships among the social, cognitive, and neurological aspects of the malady. Could dementia be caused in part by toxins in food, the environment, industrial processes and products, etc.? Its a question many in industry do not want investigated too closely. Yet if one in three will experience dementia, don't we owe it to ourselves to find out what exactly is in the food, water, and products we consume? There are millions of chemical compounds that didn't even exist 50 years ago, which have now become part of our lives and, quite literally, our bodies. Very little is known about their long-term effects and their interactions with each other.

Wow, spooky.

Tonight me and my friend was having a laugh at his house and he picked up a piece of paper with something he had jokingly wrote a couple of nights before while high. It was in the form of a BBC news report.

Now this guys not at all into conspiracies, hes quite the opposite. He doesn`t visit sites like this at all and is set in his ways.

Unfortuantly his sister passed away from cancer recently and i think this was why he wrote something like this, "Her Majesties service and the British Government have announced they have found a cure for cancer. Infact they say they`ve had it for years and are now offering flu like jabs with a vaccine against the disease and it would cure those who already had it."

He then, jokingly, went on about how it would be like other diseases like bubonic plague, extremely rare and treatable. He said how a hell of a lot of doctors would be out of a job and the big pharma companies would lose billions more or less over night. He also `joked` that he reckoned Aids was a man made disease. I wasn`t fully paying attention because again he was a wee bit stoned. but this was the general jist of what he was saying.

So i explained to him how i wouldn`t be suprised if Aids and the Ebola virus were man made and that i also reckon that they know how to cure cancer but tptb would need another disease as big as or bigger than cancer before they admitted it so that tptb can say, look everyone we have cured cancer yay! But oh no there`s a bigger nastier disease, disease X, we have to contend with. This way they look like heroes for curing cancer but loads of doctors wouldn`t lose their jobs and the big pharma companies would still be able to make billions off fighting the new global disease, disease X.

Then a few hours later i come home and log into ATS and this thread is up

Dementia is the next global pandemic, says aids prevention pioneer.

So woah, this threads certainly spooked me up a tad. Sorry for going on with maself a bit there.

Maybe i need to lay off my mates `cigarettes` a little bit a dunno????

marg6043
reply to post by snarky412

 

Statin drugs reduce cholesterol but also cholesterol is one of the most important substance that the brain needs for proper function.

Satins are a 30 billion industry soon to become with the new guidelines set last month a 70 billion dollar profit since statin has been given away like candy Alzheimer has increased.

Perhaps statin drugs are the food of prions? Just a thought, but maybe cholesterol slows the development of the prion related diseases, which I believe is the main cause.

It was on the news here in the UK a couple of days ago.
Having lost both my mother and her mother to dementia, I happened to say to my friend who was visiting at the time of the news report that "it's the next pandemic".

Everything you all have said above is true. I used to berate my mum for using aluminium saucepans. I stopped using deoderants over 25 years ago. There's loads of stuff out there that just 'drip feeds' to cause this, hence the so many variations in dementia in my view.

Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by angelchemuel

There's loads of stuff out there that just 'drip feeds' to cause this, hence the so many variations in dementia in my view.

I think you're absolutely right and I'd add something else I try not to think about much, as I think we're all seeing people with some issues. I know I am. Several years ago, USA Today had a story about a High School girl who, as a school project, tested the water ways in her general area here in the US. She sampled and sent to labs to do it right. She found what she was looking for and I've never looked at the environment quite the same way since.

Her project was looking to see if trace amounts of medications could be found in the wild, so to speak. They were, and as I recall, in 100% of places she sampled. A whole mess of crap ..well, literally from that, to be literal and leave it at that. It's leeched into the waterways and water supply by people dumping extras down the commode and of course, nature running it's course.

...even at trace or low levels..who even wants to imagine the cumultive lifetime exposure impact and, interactions in tiny ways, all the time. Things never meant to interact, even in the lowest amounts.

reply to post by Never Despise


Dementia is a scary thing. I'm 26 and my memory is horrible enough as it is, I sometime's feel like it's inevitable. But hey, my knowledge on the subject is also horrible and I probably have as much chance of getting dementia as the boy next to me. Fingers crossed it never happens though and I wish you all the same.

Everyone do yourself a favor...

KEEP READING.. if you don't stimulate your minds they will rot away...

Most of my residents that have continuously had some sort of mental stimulation are far better off then those that spent years staring at the TV

the FACT is... IF you don't use it, you will lose it...

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

...leeched into the waterways and water supply by people dumping extras down the commode and of course, nature running it's course.

...even at trace or low levels..who even wants to imagine the cumultive lifetime exposure impact and, interactions in tiny ways, all the time. Things never meant to interact, even in the lowest amounts.

Don't forget agricultural use - our food animals are fed medications daily - even antibiotics meant for humans. Industry is a MAJOR source of meds leeching into the environment and likely accounts for the rapid development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. At least. Nevermind the interactions and all-new chemical compounds that now occur in "nature."

reply to post by Akragon

...KEEP READING.. if you don't stimulate your minds they will rot away...

...the FACT is... IF you don't use it, you will lose it...

Absolutely TRUE.

Research shows that many people who show significant physical degeneration in the brain on autopsy DID NOT HAVE DEMENTIA SYMPTOMS in life. It's all about "cognitive reserve."

Akragon
Everyone do yourself a favor...

KEEP READING.. if you don't stimulate your minds they will rot away...

Most of my residents that have continuously had some sort of mental stimulation are far better off then those that spent years staring at the TV

the FACT is... IF you don't use it, you will lose it...

I'm not just saying this, but you're absolutely right and you have just persuaded me to buy a book this weekend! haha.

reply to post by Never Despise


Besides staying mentally active, stopping inflammation is key to preventing dementia or at least delaying it. Don't mean to self-promote but good info here.

snarky412
reply to post by Never Despise

 

Could dementia be caused in part by toxins in food, the environment, industrial processes and products, etc.? Its a question many in industry do not want investigated too closely. Yet if one in three will experience dementia, don't we owe it to ourselves to find out what exactly is in the food, water, and products we consume? There are millions of chemical compounds that didn't even exist 50 years ago, which have now become part of our lives and, quite literally, our bodies. Very little is known about their long-term effects and their interactions with each other.

This is what bothers me.....what the hell is in our food and what is the long term effect on us.
They seem to be able to give a fairly excuseable reason for the increase in Dementia, at least for some, it might pacify them.

But what if........what if it has nothing to do with their so-called excuses and more to do with our environment, the air we breath, the water we drink.
Our food supply.... what cattle, chicken, etc. are fed , the processes they go through to get them to the markets.

Some might inject GMO's long term effects into this scenario

It's a scary idea but a possibility

edit on 12-12-2013 by snarky412 because: (no reason given)

You are definitely in the right area of correctness.

Unfortunately like the Criminal Just Us System.....sickne$$ is a business and generates revenue.

I am sure I will get crucified for this, but perhaps its just nature.

It was really fairly recent that we started living past 50. It is in our DNA to die. We have worked so hard at medicating and saving everyone that we are baffled that our bodies still disintegrate.

Dementia is nothing new. It just has a name now.

No one cared to look further into it before because it was considered as a normal part of aging.

I think one of the saddest parts of society turning away from any religion, is the way they desperately cling onto life. No one wants to admit to growing old. No one wants to admit they will die. It used to be the elders were taken care of by their family. There is no family anymore.

Its ridiculous. In America we now have a population equaling 90 people per acre. 90 PEOPLE PER ACRE, and the elders are treated like lepers. How crazy is that?