• Question: Do you think we will ever cure dementia?

    Asked by anon-121971 to Adrian, Iroise, Joe, Rachel, Ria on 10 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Rachel Harris

      Rachel Harris answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      This is a good question. There are is currently no cure, no treatment that can slow down the disease and no way to completely prevent dementia.

      I work on Alzheimer’s disease (the most common cause of dementia) so my answer is about current research in this area.

      I think we are close to finding a drug treatment that will slow down Alzheimer’s by slowing down the death of nerve cells in the brain. I think that research may also find a way to help prevent Alzhiemer’s in those that have not yet developed the disease. This could might be a treatment that may help protect the nerve cells.
      I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to cure the disease in people who already have the condition. This is because when many nerve cells die there is not way to replace them or help the brain make many more.

    • Photo: Ria Vaportzis

      Ria Vaportzis answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      My hope is that we will find a way to prevent dementia. I’m all about prevention as preventing is better than treating or curing.

      Dementia is an umbrella term. There are various types of dementia with Alzheimer’s being the most common. Treatments for Alzheimer’s won’t necessarily work on other types of dementia, so we still have a long way to go until we can say that we can cure dementia. Having said that, I want to be positive, and I believe at some point we’ll be able to provide treatments for the various types of dementia.

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