Alzheimer’s: An issue for everyone

When I started working at Jubilee Hall back in 2009 I was aware that it was not a typical commercial gym, where the focus can be constantly on selling membership and related services to clients.

During my early journey as a personal trainer I also met and trained a lot of people, and I can now look back and see how that period changed my perception of my work fundamentally and in a good way.

For example, I learned early on that if you want to be successful as a personal trainer you need to have an natural interest in people, and by which I mean all kinds of people and not just the young.

In that spirit I would like to use the blog this week to underline how important an understanding of Alzheimer's disease is to our long-term health and vitality, even if we are in our younger years.

Here are some statistic so as to understand the impact of the disease on our society:

• By 2015 there will be 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK.

• There are today 40,000 younger people already living with dementia in the UK.

• There are 25,000 people living with dementia from black and minority ethnic groups in the UK.

• There will be 1 million people with dementia in the UK by 2025.

• Two thirds of people living with dementia are women.

• The proportion of people with dementia doubles for every five-year age group.

• One in six people aged 80 and over have dementia.

• 60,000 deaths a year are directly attributable to dementia.