Dementia cases to nearly triple by 2050 - report

PARIS, France - The number of people with dementia worldwide will nearly triple from 47 million today to 132 million in 2050, a report said Tuesday.

Dementia is an umbrella term for degenerative diseases of the brain characterised by a gradual decline in the ability to think and remember.

Accounting for well over half of cases, Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia.

As the world gets older, the number of people with dementia is set to increase exponentially, notes the World Alzheimer Report 2015, produced by Alzheimer's Disease International.

Today there are 900 million people 60 or older. Over the next 35 years, that age group will grow by 65 percent in rich countries, 185 percent in lower-middle income nations, and 239 percent in poor countries.

In 2015 alone, there will be about 10 million new cases, one every few seconds and nearly 30 percent more than in 2010.

The risk increases dramatically as we age.

Fewer than four out of every 1,000 people aged 60 to 64 are afflicted with some form of what used to be called senility. But from the age of 90, that ratio jumps to 105 for every 1,000 people, more than 10 percent.

The global cost burden of dementia is likewise increasing sharply, having risen by more than 35 percent over the last five years to $818 billion (709 billion euros) in 2015.

Sixty percent of the cost was for medical and institutional care.

"Population ageing alone drives the projected increases," said the report.

source: interaksyon.com

US study links pollution to autism risk

WASHINGTON DC - Pregnant women who were exposed to high levels of air pollution were twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in low pollution areas, a US study said on Tuesday.

According to experts at Harvard University, the research is the first large national study to examine links between the prevalence of pollution and the development of the developmental disorder.

The findings are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

"Our findings raise concerns," said lead author Andrea Roberts, a research associate in the Harvard School of Public Health Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

"Depending on the pollutant, 20 percent to 60 percent of the women in our study lived in areas where risk of autism was elevated," she said.

The data came from a large survey of 116,430 nurses that began in 1989.

For the analysis, researchers isolated 325 women who had a child with autism and 22,000 women who had a child without the disorder.

To estimate exposure to pollutants while pregnant, they used air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency, and adjusted for factors like income, education, and smoking during pregnancy.

The analysis found that women who lived in locations with the highest levels of diesel particulates or mercury in the air were twice as likely to have a child with autism as those who lived in the areas with the lowest levels.

When the pollutants included lead, manganese, methylene chloride, and combined metal exposure, women in areas with the highest levels of these pollutants were about 50 percent more likely to have a child with autism.

Autism is a brain disorder that affects as many as one in 88 in the United States, and about one in 100 in Britain.

Researchers said the findings suggest that metals and other pollutants should be regularly measured in the blood of pregnant women to give a better understanding of whether certain pollutants increase autism risk.

source: interaksyon.com