LONDON: Modern lifestyle is causing dementia and other brain diseases to strike at a younger age, with widespread use of computers, mobile phones and chemicals to blame, a new study has found.
The latest research has found that the sharp rise of dementia and other neurological deaths in people under 74 cannot be put down to the fact that we are living longer.
The rise is because a higher proportion of old people are being affected by such conditions – and what is really alarming, it is starting earlier and affecting people under 55 years, according to the research published in journal Public Health.
Of the 10 biggest Western countries the US had the worst increase in all neurological deaths – men up 66 per cent and women 92 per cent between 1979-2010. The UK was 4th highest – men up 32 per cent and women 48 per cent.
“These statistics are about real people and families, and we need to recognize that there is an ‘epidemic’ that clearly is influenced by environmental and societal changes,” said Professor Colin Pritchard of Bournemouth University.
Pritchard and colleagues show that there are rises in total neurological deaths, including the dementias, which are starting earlier, impacting upon patients, their families and health and social care services, exemplified by an 85 per cent increase in UK Motor Neurone Disease deaths.
The research highlights that there is an alarming ‘hidden epidemic’ of rises in neurological deaths between 1979-2010 of adults (under 74) in Western countries, especially the UK. -PTI
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