Alzheimer's a Growing and Deadly Problem
 

Alzheimer's a Growing and Deadly Problem

Sat Jun 5, 6:26 PM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites), which afflicted former president Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) for at least a decade, is a growing problem across the United States and much of the developed world as more people live well into old age.


It now affects an estimated 5 million people in the United States alone, and experts predict that as many as 16 million Americans will have the disease by the year 2050.

Alzheimer's affects as many as 15 million people globally

Fatal and incurable, Alzheimer's starts out as vague memory loss and progresses quickly. Patients lose their ability to find their way around, to recognize loved ones and eventually cannot care for themselves.

Reagan lived for 10 years after his diagnosis. A report in April showed that women newly diagnosed with Alzheimer'slived a median of 5.7 years and men lived 4.2 years -- about half what a person of the same age who did not have the disease would be expected to live.

In May, Reagan's wife Nancy made an impassioned appeal for controversial stem cell research, saying it could help find a cure for Alzheimer's, which had taken her husband "to a distant place where I can no longer reach him."

Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, wrote an essay in December 2003 expressing concern that some people might think Reagan was still mobile and active, despite his illness, because his family had guarded his privacy so zealously.

"But it would be a disservice to every family who has an Alzheimer's victim in their embrace to say any of that is true, and I don't believe my father would want us to lie," she wrote.

Treatments can help slow the progression of the disease but cannot cure it.

Named after German physician Alois Alzheimer who first described the condition in 1906, it is marked by plaques and tangles around and inside brain cells.

The plaques, sometimes described as tiny 'Brillo pads', are made up of a brain protein called beta amyloid. Another protein, called tau, becomes deformed and makes up the tangles inside nerve cells.

As the brain cells die, the brain shrinks and loses its wrinkly appearance.

Alzheimer's affects about 10 percent of people over the age of 65 and by the age of 85, half the population has it. It is the ninth leading cause of death among those aged 65 and older.

Story

Is it because we're living older...?


or is there something in the water that does not compute?

the christians want to live forever but dont want stem cell research, cant have it both wayas fuckers.

stop wanting to live forever and die off like normal living things and stop this god epidemic making people fear the next thing.

It's my destiny. My Grandfather had it. It's my biggest fear.

You are a man after my own heart. The two things I hate the most are christrians and death.

My grandmother died of it.

A year after my fathers stroke, I think he is showing signs of it. A few months back my mother and father tore the house apart looking for my fathers wrist watch. He put it in the dishwasher. Not sure of those are signs of it but after seeing it first hand with my grandmother I sure hope he doesnt go through that. its pretty sad to see.:(

My Dad has it following several strokes.
It is sad to see.
He has no short term memory or of the last last 20 years or so but ask him anything about his WW2 days and he has a photographic memory.

If Reagan's death brings more attention/research into this then that is a good thing :thumbsup

I hope you are wrong..

Sorry to hear that but you are right.. this is the 21th century and there are still lots of incurable ilnesses we have to face.

Me too! Thx

I don't want to live forever... but my family has one terrible history with cancer.. can I pick a heart attack please?

stupid religion. so much of the worlds problems would go away if religion was out of the equation.

whoa hold on a sec... it says 15 million globally and 5 million in the US? how the hell? US has only 5% of worlds population

Yes but read it again: it is a growing problem across the United States and much of the developed world as more people live well into old age.
So not in India or China... they have to face obesity first.. and they do.

americans go crazy more than the rest of the world :)

you can't go by world population because the majority of the worlds pop doesn't have the life expectancy of the states

Goodness.. dont think like that!! :2 cents:

Yeah Alzheimers is scary shit.. my grandmother had that when she died.. and she didn't even remember any of us anymore.

I'd prefer a bullet to the brain anyday.

Yup we make our own destiny every day, no matter what genetic predisposition we may have :thumbsup