Daily Archives: 22 May, 2012

Doctors failing to spot Alzheimer’s

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Dementia will kill one in three people over 65, but a survey of GPs reveals that almost two-thirds admit they are not properly taught to recognise the signs of it.

Only 37 per cent of GPs say they have adequate basic training on dementia, according to research by the Alzheimer’s Society. As a result, just 43 per cent of people with the condition are diagnosed, leaving hundreds of thousands of patients untreated, the charity claims.

Around 800,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia, costing the economy more than £23bn every year. In less than 10 years, it is estimated that a million people will be living with the condition, rising to 1.7 million by 2051. If dementia is discovered and treated early, the onset of the worst symptoms can be delayed, giving people a better quality of life.

The Alzheimer’s Society also found that 75 per cent of GPs wanted to know more about the management of behavioural symptoms of the disease. The survey of 382 GPs was commissioned ahead of Dementia Awareness Week which begins tomorrow.

Diane Abbott, Labour spokesperson on public health, said: “This is alarming, because we’ve got an ageing population with a higher incidence of Alzheimer’s than ever. If dementia is caught early people can still have a high quality of life. But, if most GPs don’t feel trained to deal with it, that’s very worrying news for Britain’s elderly and their families.”

Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's

Poor diagnosis rates can also be attributed to the embarrassment and fear that prevents some patients from coming forward. When asked what the barriers to identifying the disease were, 65 per cent of GPs said “many people with dementia do not present to general practice” and 66 per cent also cited the stigma attached to the disease as putting patients off visiting their doctor.

Allan Grogan, 70, from the Wirral, took his wife, Mavis, 67, to the doctor in 2006 when she first showed symptoms, but the GP dismissed her unusual behaviour as “no cause for concern”. A year later she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and now she is in full-time care in a nursing home.


“She was telling the same stories, and doing little things such as wearing her coat inside the house ,or putting the dishes and cutlery in funny places,” said Mr Grogan.

“We were worried about it and took her to the GP and he said there was no cause for concern. It was only when we went back a second time that it was taken seriously.”

Dr Alex Turnbull, a GP from Wigan, said: “Having a diagnosis of dementia as early as possible is really important, allowing people to plan for the future as well as to access support and potential treatments. But it is also vital that, as GPs, we get the support and information we need to help people to the best of our ability.”

An online learning tool to help GPs tackle the problem is being launched this week by the Alzheimer’s Society and the British Medical Association.

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Currently, only 43 per cent of people with dementia get a formal diagnosis. This could be for several reasons, including stigma and lack of awareness in the general public, as well as people not visiting their doctor.

“We need to support GPs as much as possible as they have a vital role to play in diagnosing and supporting people with the condition.”

Is HDL cholesterol actually good ?

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We all know lowering ‘bad cholesterol’ – known as Low-Density Lipoprotein or LDL – helps the heart.

But scientists say raising levels of ‘good cholesterol’ may not protect you from cardiac disease.

In a challenge to conventional wisdom, a team from Harvard Medical school found no direct link between raising good cholesterol levels – or HDL – with a lower risk of a heart attack.

The study published in the medical journal The Lancet compared heart-attack risk among people who inherited known genetic variants that gave them higher HDL levels.

This should mean they had a lower risk of coronary disease. However, the study of more than 50,000 people found no such link.

This implies that it is best to focus on lowering the levels of LDL in order to tackle heart disease.

‘Ways of raising HDL cholesterol might not reduce risk of myocardial infarction,’ Dr Sekar Kathiresan from Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the study, said.

‘With drugs or lifestyle changes to raise HDL, we cannot automatically assume that risk of myocardial infarction will be reduced,’ he added.

HDL cholesterol

HDL cholesterol

HDL is known as ‘good’ cholesterol because its higher concentrations have been associated with lower risk of heart attacks in some studies, but its exact mechanism has always been uncertain.


In the new research, scientists studied genes involved in raising HDL in about 170,000 individuals and found that 15 HDL-raising genetic variants they tested do not reduce the risk of heart attack.

It was found that there was no difference in heart attack risk of individuals who carried genes involved in elevated HDL than those without the genetic variant.

‘It is an interesting study which goes against prevalent evidence about HDL. Increasing HDL, in any case, is difficult, whether by lifestyle or exercise. So our primary target is lowering LDL cholesterol,’ Dr Anoop Misra, head of Centre of Internal Medicine at Fortis Hospital, said.

Dr D. Prabhakaran, executive director, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, said: ‘Heart attack is multifactorial and not confined to one single risk factor like low HDL.

‘While understanding genetics to develop new drugs may be useful, it would be wrong not to address other risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood glucose, obesity and tobacco.’