Experts urge ‘Manhattan Project’ on dementia as cases projected to soar past 1 million

A doctor looks at PET brain scans at Banner Alzheimers Institute in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that dementia accounts for almost one in 10 deaths in the country.

Among Australians aged 65 and older, dementia is now the leading cause of death for women and second only to heart disease for men.

In Canada, approximately 750,000 people currently live with Alzheimer’s – the chronic neurodegenerative disease that accounts for many dementia diagnoses, according to Statistics Canada. Alzheimer’s was identified as the ninth leading cause of death in Canada in 2022.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) describes dementia as an umbrella term used to refer to multiple symptoms that affect an individual’s brain functions. This is a chronic condition that gets more severe over time and can affect a person’s memory, planning, language, judgement, co-ordination, bladder control, muscle strength and movement.

Between March 2023 and April 2022, nearly 487,000 Canadians aged 65 or more were living with diagnosed dementia, according to the PHAC data. Of them, close to 99,000 were “newly” diagnosed with the condition.

However, this does not include the multiple forms of dementia outside of Alzheimer’s, which may lead to an underestimation of the full impact of the disease.

‘They do not necessarily die of dementia’

Dr. Roger Wong, a clinical professor in geriatric medicine at the University of British Columbia, told CTVNews.ca on Tuesday that despite the disease being labelled as the leading cause of death in Australia, the number of deaths attributable to dementia has dropped in Canada.

“Many individuals, persons living with dementia, including Alzheimer’s, oftentimes die with dementia. They do not necessarily die of dementia,” Wong said.

He explained that seniors living with dementia and Alzheimer’s are more likely to develop parallel health conditions like heart disease, strokes, pneumonia and infections. Living with a neurodegenerative condition also increases the risk of accidental falls that can result in fractures and other physical injuries.

“The most common reason why persons living with dementia and Alzheimer’s ultimately pass is because of pneumonia,” Wong said.

Despite the number of people with dementia projected to increase, due to the rise in population, PHAC data show that the rate of new diagnosis in people aged 65 and more has been steadily decreasing in the past decade. There was a drop of 1,411 new cases per 100,000 or 1.4 per cent between April 2022 and March 2023.

However, the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada has forecasted that nearly one million people will be living with dementia by 2030. As of Jan. 1, 2025, they estimate about 770,000 Canadians have been diagnosed.

“Every day, more than 414 people in Canada develop dementia. This is more than 17 every hour,” the website reads.

In 2020, an estimated 61.8 per cent of Canadians living with dementia were female and more than half of the care partners were also female, according to Alzheimer’s Society of Canada.

“By 2050, projections show that over 1 million women will be living with dementia in Canada,” the website says.

‘I can’t write a prescription’

Dr. Howard Chertkow, scientific director at Baycrest’s Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health & Wellness and professor at the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday that the aging population in Canada will be the cause for a significant increase in the number of people who will have dementia.

“The exact numbers often depend on how you do the counting,” Chertkow said. “Whether you count people who are not yet with dementia, whether you’re counting strictly the Alzheimer’s people or people living with other forms of dementia.”

He added that Alzheimer’s and dementia account for most premature deaths in older adults living in long-term care.

“Alzheimer’s and dementia are the only categories where I can’t write a prescription and someone goes to the pharmacy to get treatment to stop it or slow it, or prevent it,” he said. “We have no medication in Canada that will slow or stop or reverse the dementia.”

However, both Wong and Chertkow believe despite being a neurodegenerative disease with accompanying complications, dementia is preventable through lifestyle changes.

Lifelong factors like lack of education, exposure to pollution, poor nutrition, and head injuries also contribute to an increased risk of dementia, Chertkow explained.

“There are lifelong risk factors that as a society, we will need to increasingly pay attention to,” he said.

‘More work needs to be done’

Both Wong and Chertkow emphasized the importance of exercise, as well as proper treatment of problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, quality of sleep and social isolation. Cognitive stimulation also plays a large role in keeping neurodegenerative implications at bay.

Another major contributor could be a possible lack of hearing, both experts said.

“If you correct hearing, you can actually reduce the likelihood of dementia or progression,” Wong said.

“The important thing is to make sure that these things are being done concurrently, he added. “We cannot pick or choose. We cannot say we pick one out of 14 and do that risk factor modification, and then we are good. It doesn’t work like that, but the focus is about prevention and maintenance of brain health.”

Chertkow added that the response from the federal government to the rise in the glaringly obvious problem has been inadequate.

“It’s almost as though the government is showing some interest, but not the degree of interest that is warranted,” he said.

“A lot more work needs to be done. And I think there needs to be a Manhattan Project on dementia, putting big resources towards trying to stop it in the next 10 or 15 years in Canada.”