10 things everyone should know about alzheimer's
In Honor of Wiley G. Martin
Alzheimer’s disease gradually erodes a person’s memory, reasoning, and personality. It is a disease of old age, primarily affecting those over 65. For people who live to be 85 or older, the likelihood of developing this progressive degenerative disorder reaches one in two. It affects 5 million people in the United States, and as many as 44 million worldwide.
The early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease include forgetting important, recently-learned information, being disoriented, and putting objects in strange places. These symptoms intensify through the three stages of the disease — mild, moderate, and severe — and can ultimately end in death, in part because of the fragile health associated with the severe stage.
Although Alzheimer’s disease was the sixth leading cause of death in the United States in 2013, many unknowns still interfere with effective treatments and prevention of the disorder. Researchers have identified some risk factors, and as understanding increases, new therapies and diagnostic tests may help clinicians, patients, and families get a handle on this difficult neurological disease.
How can you get a handle on risk factors you can control? Read on for the answer — and more — about Alzheimer’s disease.
1. Alzheimer’s disease frequently co-occurs with other diseases. Many people who develop Alzheimer’s disease have cardiovascular disease as well, says Timothy Hohman, PhD, a core faculty member at Vanderbilt University’s Memory and Alzheimer’s Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Researchers are thinking differently about Alzheimer’s now, he says, and focusing more on these co-occurring disorders and how they fit into the clinical picture of the disease. A 2015 study found that some strong risk factors for cardiovascular disease may also be factors in Alzheimer’s, and they're also linked to smaller brain volumes — even in people under 50.
2. Alzheimer’s could be called the third type of diabetes. Dementia specialists often talk about Alzheimer’s as being “the third type of diabetes” in addition to type 1 (the insulin-dependent form) and type 2, says Paul Schulz, MD, professor of neurology and director of Dementia and Memory Disorders at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Schulz says that the same enzymes that lower our blood sugar are also responsible for reducing levels of amyloid, a protein featured prominently in Alzheimer’s-associated brain plaques. “One thought is that when those enzymes get too involved with dealing with elevated sugar, they are unavailable to lower amyloid levels,” he says.
3. Alzheimer’s disease represents one of two broad types of dementia. Dementia can arise in one of two basic ways: by a problem with your circulatory system, leading to a stroke that damages the brain, or by damage to the cells that form the brain. Alzheimer’s has historically been
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