Researchers say Canadians can help end Alzheimer's disease

In recognition of January being Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, a mental health organization has called on Canadians to take action to help further doctors' knowledge about the brain disorder.

Researchers at the Douglas Institute say they are in the midst of a series of prevention studies that aim to analyze how innovative treatments can help minimize symptoms of Alzheimer's before they have an impact.

"That's the key," said Judes Poirier, associate director of the Centre for Studies on Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease at the Douglas Institute. "Our research is modeled on spectacular successes [and] we want to intervene before any damage is done."

John Breitner, who serves as as the main director of the Centre, added that through the innovative studies, the hope is that a treatment will be developed that helps impede Alzheimer's damage.

"Thanks to a new state-of-the-art laboratory and high-tech medical imaging capabilities, we can examine the poorly understood properties of several common medications and measure their preventive action," he said.

Researchers at the Douglas Institute hope the public can advance their successes toward finding a cure by helping with the research. As such, they are currently recruiting older healthy individuals who do not have symptoms of Alzheimer's but may have a sibling or parent with the disease. Studies have shown that family members of individuals with the disorder have a considerably higher risk of developing Alzheimer's compared to those who have no history of it in the family.

With the help of the Canadian public, in concert with researchers' experience and know-how, the Douglas Institute is hopeful that they will be able to find treatments that can prevent the disease from advancing.

Alzheimer's disease has had a significant impact on society's health, both in the physical and financial sense. According to the World Alzheimer's Report, Alzheimer's and other dementia-related diseases cost $604 billion worldwide in healthcare costs in 2010 alone. That total is expected to double by 2030 if scientists are not able to advance treatment therapies that can block the disease's progression.

As significant an impact Alzheimer's has had on the world at large, its impact on Canada has been particularly acute. According to the Alzheimer Society's recent study - Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia on Canadian Society - in 2008 alone, approximately 103,700 new cases developed, which translates to one in every five minutes. By 2038, that total is expected to more than double to 257,800 new cases, or one in every two minutes. That means that 27 years from now, more than 1.1 million Canadians will have Alzheimer's or some other dementia-related disease, or what amounts to 2.1 per cent of the country's population. That could lead to $153 billion in healthcare costs and economic losses.

Accounting for 64 per cent of all dementias in Canada, Alzheimer's disease is generally characterized by having difficulty remember things and impacting affected individuals in such a way that it interferes with their everyday activities. A recent survey found that nearly 50 per cent of Canadians lived a year or more with the disease before seeking treatment from a doctor.