Bill Gates reveals ‘the next phase of Alzheimer’s fight’ while sharing Dad’s personal battle

Bill Gates is talking about his personal experience with Alzheimer’s, and his hope of progress in the fight against the disease.

In an essay published this week on his blog on Gatesnotes.com, the co -founder and multimillionaire of Tech, 69, reflected on the difficulty of spending another father’s day without his father, Bill Gates Mr.

The old Gates died in 2020 at the age of 94 after fighting Alzheimer’s.

Dementia rates are lower in people who eat this specific diet, shows research

“It was a brutal experience, seeing my brilliant and loving father go downhill and disappearing,” Gates wrote in the blog post.

Today, motivated by his own experience with common dementia, Gates, who serves as president of the Gates Foundation, undertakes to work towards a cure for common dementia, which currently affects more than seven million Americans, or one in nine people over 65 years old.

In his blog, Gates expressed his optimism about the “mass progress” made in the fight against Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Last year, Gates said he visited the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Indiana in Indianapolis to tour the laboratories where teams have been investigating Alzheimer’s biomarkers.

Bill Gates probably had autism when he was a child, he reveals: “He was not widely understood”

“I also had the opportunity to look under the hood of new automated machines that will soon execute diagnoses worldwide,” he wrote. “It is an exciting moment in a challenging space.”

One of the greatest advances in Alzheimer’s research, according to Gates, are blood -based diagnostic tests, which detect the relationship of amyloid plates in the brain. (Amiloid plates, protein groups that accumulate in the brain, are one of the characteristics of Alzheimer’s).

“I am optimistic that these tests will be a change of play,” Gates wrote.

Last month, the United States Drug and Food Administration (FDA) approved the first blood -based test for patients 55 years or older, as News Digital reported at that time.

“A simple, precise and easy -to -run blood test could one day make routine detection possible.”

Traditionally, Gates pointed out, the main road to Alzheimer’s diagnosis was a PET exploration (medical images) or a spinal tap (lumbar puncture), which were usually only performed when symptoms arose.

The hope is that blood -based tests can do a better job when catching early disease, the decrease begins.

“Now we know that the disease starts from 15 to 20 years before it begins to see signs,” Gates wrote.

“A simple, precise and easy -to -run blood test could one day make routine detection possible, identifying patients long before they experience cognitive deterioration,” he said.

Gates said that he is often asked: “What is the point of being diagnosed if I can’t do anything about it?”

Click here to get the News application

To that end, he expressed his optimism for the future of Alzheimer’s treatments, noting that two drugs, Lecanemab (Leqembi) and Donanemab (Kisunla), have obtained the approval of the FDA.

“Both have demonstrated modestly slowing down the progression of the disease, but what really excites me is their potential when combined with an early diagnosis,” Gates said.

He said he also hopes that blood tests will help accelerate the process of registration of patients in clinical trials for new Alzheimer’s medications.

To achieve this, Gates is asking for greater financing for research, which often comes from federal subsidies.

Click here to register in our health newsletter

“This is the time to spend more money on research, no less,” he wrote, also stating that “the search to stop Alzheimer’s never had more impulse.”

“There is still a lot of work to do, such as deepening our understanding of disease pathology and developing an even better diagnosis,” Gates continued.

“I am impressed by how much we have learned about Alzheimer’s in recent years.”

Gates said that when his father had Alzheimer’s, he considered himself a “death sentence”, but that is beginning to change.

“I am impressed by how much we have learned about Alzheimer’s in recent years,” he wrote.

For more health articles, visit www.Newsnews.com/health

“I can’t help being full of a sense of hope when I think about all the progress that takes place in Alzheimer’s, even with so many challenges that happen throughout the world. We are closer than ever to a world where nobody has to see someone who loves suffering from this horrible disease.”