00:00We can certainly say that today the Alzheimer's disease is less scary, we know that we can
00:09prevent it, we already have evidence of a comprehensively reduced incidence because
00:15the control of the risk factors manages to move the appearance of this condition,
00:21unfortunately correlated, to the aging of the population.
00:24What are the risk factors?
00:26There are really many, the last of which have been discovered and recently relaunched,
00:33a bad cholesterol, for example, an uncontrolled sight impairment, deafness, especially if
00:40not treated, but then there are cardiovascular risk factors, hygiene, in particular
00:46oral hygiene, the microbiota, when in some way solicited by the wrong diet, alcohol,
00:53cigarette smoke, atmospheric pollution, IPM 2.5, that is, heavy metals, there are many
01:01factors that in a concept of global health also interest Alzheimer's disease.
01:07In fact, the fragility of the brain or the vulnerability of the brain is expressed by increasing
01:14the risk of getting sick, so everything we can do to safeguard the health of the brain
01:20also serves to counteract Alzheimer's disease.
01:22There are several aspects that the figure of the caregiver is interesting, first of all
01:27it interests a large part of the population, if it is true, as it is true, that there are
01:312 million patients with cognitive decline, half of whom have Alzheimer's disease,
01:37we can believe that there is at least another million people involved, then if we enlarge
01:43the average family, let's say that this number multiplies by 2, by 3, and those who have not
01:50had in some way a relative affected by this condition, those who have not taken care of
01:55patients with cognitive decline, I believe that in Italy the numbers would be surprisingly
02:01very high.
02:02Having said that, I believe that on the figure of the caregiver, first of all, a coping,
02:10an activity of taking charge, not only of the patient but of the caregiver, that the
02:14caregiver is flanked by specialist figures, not by single doctors or by single psychologists,
02:21but there are multidisciplinary teams.
02:23I believe that the government is moving in this direction, moving in the territories,
02:27in the community hospitals and in the health centers, these multiprofessional teams, and
02:33giving answers that on paper seem to be the correct answers.
02:39And it is never enough, honestly, because in the end, managing a patient with Alzheimer's
02:44disease, when the disease complicates or disrupts the behavior, the words, I mean, and the acts
02:51become always very difficult to predict.
02:54The fact remains that today there is still a lot to do in this direction.
02:58The drugs could certainly help us reduce this global burden, this weight.
03:05I remind everyone that there are 200,000 new patients every year.
03:10It is a higher number than the number of patients who get cancer and it is an equal number of
03:16patients who develop Alzheimer's disease.
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