Neurological Diseases: Facts, Stats and Trends
Neurological disorders are growing at a fast rate all around the globe. Most people do not understand what exactly these disorders are and how it can affect the overall quality of life of those suffering. There exist more than 600-neurological diseases, and one of the most common misconceptions about is that they are equivalent to a mental illness.
It is thus necessary to understand what neurological disorders can do and get treated accordingly. Keeping this in mind let’s have a look at a few facts.
The brain is the most important organ of the human body, Image Credits: Flickr
Neurological Diseases Facts
It’s Not a Mental Illnesses
The common misconception about some neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease is that they are equivalent to mental illnesses.
In most cases, memory and cognitive ability are untouched by neurological disorders.
However, symptoms of a related disease can often be visible, like some mental illnesses.
Leading Cause of Disability Worldwide
Neurological problems can be blamed as the major reason for disability globally.
15% of the world’s population, that is close to around 1-billion people around the world, have a neurological disorder.
Approximately 25% of all people aged 16 to 32 years have some chronic neurological issue.
Neurological problems cause around 7 million lives every year globally.
They’re Not Always Fatal
The medical world judges the seriousness of a disease by the prevalence of death caused by it.
Mortality statistics underestimate the suffering caused by diseases that may be non-fatal but may cause considerable disability.
Neurological diseases don’t rank high on the list of fatal health problems as this may lead to neglect of the problem.
This can thus be a big problem in developing countries and among less affluent populations.
Functions of the body can be affected
Thinking process can be affected by neurological disorders. , Image Credits: Pixabay
When you develop a neurological disorder, it tends to impact in many ways as the nervous system is vital for the functioning of the body.
Everyday activities like waking up, breathing, thinking, reading, remembering, and feeling emotions are disturbed.
It is the nervous system that looks after the basic movements, balance, coordination, learning ability, hunger, body temperature, sense of touch etc.
Neurological Problems Can be From Trauma
Though some neurological problems develop for unknown reasons, real physical injuries caused to the brain or spinal cord can also be responsible.
A traumatic brain injury can be the result of major shock or injury to the head.
The spinal cord is the superhighway for the brain to send signals to reach the rest of your body to perform functions.
Headaches
Headaches are considered as one of the most prevalent neurological issues. Some other major reasons include stroke, epilepsy, dementia.
It has also come to light that most people affected by these symptoms age from around 32-40.
There are Effective Treatments
Brain mapping, cyber knife, deep brain stimulation and gamma knife are four treatments that are usually adopted to limit the ailment and cure it.
New techniques have also been developed that allow doctors to remove brain tumours without affecting the healthy tissue of the brain.
Cyber knife is a technique used to treat such disorders, Image Credits: Commons Wikimedia
Neurological Diseases Statistics and Trends
About 30 million people in India suffer from various types of neurological diseases and the prevalence rate is estimated as 2,394 patients per 1,00,000 of the population.
Between 1990 and 2015 the number of deaths due to neurological ailments raised by 36.7% worldwide.
Neurological diseases accounted for 16.8 percent of global deaths in the year 2015.
It was also noted that an estimate that from 50 million people with epilepsy, more than 80% of them come from the developing nations.
Every 1 out of 6 suffer from neurological disorders or diseases around the globe.
More than 50 million people globally are victims of epilepsy.
Stroke kills approximately 6.2 million people annually.
Around 10% of the people in the world are prevalent to migraines.
With 7.7 million new cases every year, it is estimated that there are globally 35.6 million people affected by dementia.
The World Health Organization stated that every year, millions are affected by neurological disorders, which includes 24 million that suffer from Alzheimer’s and 326 million who have migraines.