Alzheimer's Disease.

Hiroaki Yasuzawa

Good evening, everyone. My name is Hiroaki Yasuzawa.

Today, I'm going to talk about Alzheimer's disease. I'm interested in this topic because my grandfather developed it. Therefore I want to know how many people have it inJapan, whether only particular people develop it or not and what we can do to prevent ourselves from developing it. I'm going to cover two points. First, I'll show you the number of people who had Alzheimer's disease in 2000. Finally, I'll tell you how to avoid it.

First, I'm going to tell you how many people have Alzheimer's disease inJapan. I think the number of those people is increasing because even people close to me like my grandfather developed it. In 2000, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor announced 1,5 million people had Alzheimer's disease. In addition, they also say the number of these people will double in 30 years. Now the ratio of people who have Alzheimer's disease is about seven out of a hundred people over 65 and when it increase ----------it will be one out of ten people over 65.

I covered the increasing number of people developing Alzheimer's disease. Then I'll tell you what Alzheimer's disease is.

I used to think that I won't develop it until my grandfather developed it because I'm very healthy. However, do you know that it is possible for anybody to develop it? There's a good example, Ronald Reagan, who was a U.S president, died after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease, according to CNN.

From this example and the raising number, you can guess easily that whoever you are and whatever position you are in, it would be no wonder for you to develop Alzheimer's disease.

If you develop a Alzheimer's disease, you won't notice at first that you're developing it because it spreads very slowly. You'll feel gradually it is difficult to learn new things by heart. And when you notice you have it, it'll be too late to fix.

So what can we do to avoid Alzheimer's disease? I covered what Alzheimer's disease is and next, I'll teach you how to avoid it.

According to the Mainichi website, it seems important whether you'll develop a Alzheimer's disease or won't how much DHA or EPA you've been taking in. if you want to take in them, you can take in DHA from fish and EPA from fruits or vegetable----------especially green vegetables. It's not good to eat a large amount of them at one time, but it's important to eat them daily. I think this also protects our health even from developing other lifestyle-related diseases. It's often said that people who have their own hobbies, pastimes or pleasures are difficult to develop Alzheimer's disease, compared with people who don't, which seems true. In addition to those, I think that to be conscious that you may develop it is very important because the more quickly you notice you're developing it, the higher the chance you can cure it increases.

To summarize, this speech shows that the number of people who have Alzheimer's disease is increasing, that it is possible for anybody to develop it and how to avoid it.

I'm sure that no one wants to develop it. So we should take care of our health more. Don't regard your eating habit to be unimportant for your health, and the chance which you'll develop Alzheimer's disease will be less.

Thank you for your attention. Are there any questions?

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