Alzheimers Day awareness rally held

CHENNAI: “I am afraid that India might become the Alzheimer capital of the world if we continue living a stressful life.” Those words sum up the volcano that the city has been sitting on, as feared by neuro physicians in the city.The  World Alzheimer Disease Day, observed every year on September 21,  draws people's attention to the threat looming large over the elderly citizens of the city, according to experts. An awareness rally is perhaps a good way to start, said Subramanian, President, Rotaract Club of Dr MGR Janaki College of Arts and Science, which organised a rally near the Gandhi Statue at Marina on Wednesday.Alzheimer Disease International is celebrating the year 2011 as ‘Faces of Dementia’.Speaking to City Express, Dr A V Srinivasan, a Neuro-Physician, said that the disease is primarily caused due to blood supply dementia and age associated problems. The disease shows certain symptoms like lapse of memory, behavioural change and sudden emotional burst.Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a complex brain disorder, takes its name after the German physician, Alois Alzheimer, who first identified it in 1906.The disease is  prone to attack people above the age of 65 and those with high blood pressure, diabetes, smokers, people with obesity or alcoholics, he said. Quoting an international study, he said only 10 per cent of the people were affected hereditarily and rest were cases of high stress. After being 'crowned' the diabetes and heart diseases capital of the world, India, with its increasing population of senior citizens, might soon be the Alzheimer capital of the world as well, claimed Srinivasan.When asked about the research in the field of Alzheimer disease study, he said across the world, enhanced research was undertaken to determine the exact source of the disease and, surprisingly, all the symptoms led to the brain. Thus, neuro physicians across the world were warning people that high stress and memory loss were preliminary stages of the disease.The rally was organised by Rotary Club of Madras in partnership with Rotract Club of Madras Coromandel (RCMC). The office bearers of Rotary Club and RCMC later released a book on Alzheimer Disease.

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