1 to study Alzheimer's disease.
On the evening of165438+1October 13, Beijing time, BillGates, the co-founder of Microsoft, said today that he would invest 50 million US dollars in DementiaDiscoveryFund, which is dedicated to promoting the research of Alzheimer's disease.
This investment does not belong to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of the Gates Charity Foundation. In addition to this $50 million investment, Gates will also invest $50 million in some start-up companies that study Alzheimer's disease.
Gates said that with the extension of human life span, the number of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other types of Alzheimer's disease is increasing rapidly, which has brought more and more emotional harm and economic losses to people. Gates said in an interview: "This is a big problem, an increasingly serious problem. It has caused great harm to people. "
Although related scientific research has been carried out for decades, so far, there is no treatment that can slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease. At present, some drugs can only alleviate some symptoms. Gates said that by funding innovation, I believe that an "optimistic" treatment plan can be found, although it may take more than 65,438+00 years.
Gates said: "It may take about 10 years to study new treatment schemes, so it is difficult to predict when effective drugs will be developed at present. But I hope that in the next 10 years, we can find effective drugs. Of course, this may not be possible. "
2. Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease
1, spatiotemporal chaos
Patients with Alzheimer's disease are confused about time and space, and often can't tell the morning from the evening, which leads to the inversion of sleep schedule. When you are away from home, you can't tell the place, you can't remember the route home, and you are easy to get lost.
2. The ability to execute judgments declines.
It is difficult for Alzheimer's patients to give instructions to others, such as simply packing things, and it is difficult to take them out and arrange them properly. When cooking and cooking, I often make a mistake in the order, and even forget to put oil and salt; Can't judge the season correctly, wear winter clothes in summer and so on. Unable to judge some simple logical relationships, which is also a symptom of dementia.
3. Behavioral and emotional changes
Alzheimer's disease can also cause emotional changes in patients. Usually cheerful and confident personality will gradually change to suspicious direction. Life and work are obviously lacking in enthusiasm, and things that used to be interesting are now cold. I used to have exercise habits, but now I will become unwilling to exercise. In addition, Alzheimer's patients often suspect that others want to harm him and steal from him, so they hide what they think is important everywhere, but they often can't remember where they put it.
4. Language expression.
In the communication with Alzheimer's patients, it will be found that what they say is difficult to understand, or they answer questions, hear things, and speak inarticulate. This is due to the communication barrier caused by Alzheimer's disease, which affects their language expression ability.
5, the computing power is declining.
The calculation ability of Alzheimer's patients will also decline, and there may be problems such as confusing prices, making mistakes in payment or changing money when shopping.
3. Hazards of Alzheimer's disease
1, the patients' quality of life has seriously declined: the initial symptoms of Alzheimer's disease generally begin with amnesia. If you often forget things, some things are deliberately remembered and will be forgotten afterwards, which will seriously affect your work and life. Further development, patients' ability of daily living declines, they don't know their spouses and children, and they can't take care of themselves when dressing, eating and urinating. Some people will also have hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, which will bring endless pain and trouble to themselves and the people around them.
2. Heavy economic burden: someone has roughly calculated an account. According to the calculation of taking drugs during the general survival period of Alzheimer's disease, the annual cost of an Alzheimer's patient 10 is not less than 400,000, which is enough to buy a good commercial house in a second-tier city in China, not counting the daily expenses such as accommodation and food.
3. Lack of information and emotional problems: In a sense, it is not the patients themselves who suffer from Alzheimer's disease, because with the progress of the disease, their thinking world will become "rejuvenated" and they have no feelings about the ups and downs in life. The most painful thing is actually taking care of your family. Among many family members who take care of Alzheimer's patients, more than 80% have different degrees of emotional disorders. The key is the feeling of being unable to communicate and seeing no hope, which makes many family members feel desperate.