Bill Gates and His Fight Against Dementia
Efforts To Fight Dementia
November 15, 2017
On November 13, the American business magnate, Bill Gates, invested $50 million in efforts to fight dementia. Funds went to the Dementia Discovery Fund, which is a private fund working to diversify the clinical pipeline and identify new targets for treatment. The goals of DDF is to support startups who explore the less mainstream approaches to treating dementia. This is an investment Gates has approached based on years of research. He is calling for scientists to come with new tools and theories in efforts to fight dementia.
In his statement, Gates made five points he considered crucial for the future of dementia. He emphasized the importance of the need to better understand how Alzheimer’s unfolds, the need to detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier, more approaches to stopping the disease, the need to make it easier for people to get enrolled in clinical trials, and use of data more efficiently. No doubt, Gates has spent years researching the disease and now he’s ready to start putting his research into action.
Dementia is defined as loss of memory and other mental abilities severe enough caused by physical changes in the brain. They are several levels and aspects to dementia. Vascular dementia is known as multi-infarct or post-stroke dementia. Vascular is a lot less common accounting for about 10% of dementia cases. After the age of 60, adults become a target of vascular dementia. Certain diseases and health problems can either cause or increase the chances of developing dementia in later life. This includes high blood pressure, thyroid problems, strokes, infections, and heart diseases are amongst the most common.
The most common type of dementia accounts for an estimated 60 to 80 percent of cases: Alzheimer’s disease. The most common symptoms include not remembering conversations, names, events, apathy, and depression. More severe symptoms include poor judgment, confusion, difficulty speaking, and changes in behavior.