Alzheimer's Disease Affects 'Twice As Many People' As Experts Thought (nypost.com) 60
schwit1 shares a report from the New York Post: In the U.S., 5.8 million people are living with the debilitating condition, according to the Alzheimer's Association, and that number is projected to rise to nearly 14 million by 2050. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota believe, however, that many more people are probably already living with it without having a formal diagnosis. They've been using brain imaging to give a definite answer as to how many people are affected. Tests on 2,500 people have shown that double the number of people have telltale signs of protein plaques and tangles in the brain -- markers of Alzheimer's disease -- even if they're not experiencing dementia. "The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease is all based on clinical assessment. It's just based on the question 'Do you have dementia?'" Dr. Jack Clifford, the Alexander Family professor of Alzheimer's disease research at the Mayo Clinic, told The Telegraph. "Classically defined Alzheimer's undercounts people who have the pathology but do not have symptoms. A lot more people have the disease but do not have symptoms, just like a lot more people have hypertension than have had a stroke, or a lot more people have diabetes than people who have gone blind."
Biological markers (Score:4, Interesting)
If you can live with the disease biological marker and without the disease, it means the biological marker does not tells us much about the disease.
Re:Biological markers (Score:4, Insightful)
Not necessarily. Some diseases show few signs at first until the suffer suddenly decompensates. That is, it appears to come on suddenly when it's actually been at a slow boil for some time, then it crosses a threshold.
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Not necessarily. Some diseases show few signs at first until the suffer suddenly decompensates. That is, it appears to come on suddenly when it's actually been at a slow boil for some time, then it crosses a threshold.
Well, having had some family experience with Alzheimer's, the symptoms never came on suddenly. At first the decline was so slow that it was only in retrospect that we knew that the person was in the beginning stages of dementia.
Even then, when it was obvious that the person was having trouble, it was not a fast onset, merely a long, slow goodbye.
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I think the idea is to get treated before the symptoms manifest themselves.
And what would that treatment be?
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And likewise, someone with the biological markers may be affected at a level that won't be noticed as symptome except perhaps in retrospect.
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If you can live with the disease biological marker and without the disease, it means the biological marker does not tells us much about the disease.
Asymptomatic Alzheimer's - what will they think of next?
This whole thing smacks of an effort to get more funding. The ads will be frantically telling everyone that Alzheimer's is epidemic even through we don't always know we have it.
Reminds me of the autism epidemic, where they were trying to shoehorn more and more people into the spectrum.
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Ever wondered if maybe it's you that have difficulty understanding the world rather than there being conspiracies everywhere?
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Ever wondered if maybe it's you that have difficulty understanding the world rather than there being conspiracies everywhere?
You win the non-sequitur prize this morning for interpreting what I wrote as a conspiracy theory. It's just the economics of the medical industry in the US.
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Why do you feel that Alzheimer's Association is an industry organization?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Not saying it is or isn't - I don't know anything about it; just wanted to know why you think it is.
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Why do you feel that Alzheimer's Association is an industry organization? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Not saying it is or isn't - I don't know anything about it; just wanted to know why you think it is.
I don't think it is an industry association. But if they can suddenly claim that asymptomatic people are suffering from Alzheimer's, research money can be demanded. The issue is that Alzheimer's is invariably fatal. The medicines used to treat it simply extend the inevitble timeline. This is like extending the timeline of incurable incendiary cancer. Live a few more months in terrible pain, allow your family to suffer as they see you suffer.
Ever see a lot of people with Alzheimer's? While some are happy
Re: Biological markers (Score:2)
We have legal medically assisted suicide here but you have to prove youâ(TM)re sound of mind so itâ(TM)s pretty much out of the window if you want to check out late and you cant ask for it in advance in a will or s
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Cant say Iâ(TM)m agaisnt more funding for a cure or mitigation treatment. I saw a few people die of it and man itâ(TM)s not pretty in the last fee years. I mean its ok for a while but at some point if it was me Iâ(TM)d whish someone would pull the plug its just a farce. We have legal medically assisted suicide here but you have to prove youâ(TM)re sound of mind so itâ(TM)s pretty much out of the window if you want to check out late and you cant ask for it in advance in a will or something. The lawâ(TM)s still new and people are fighting to change it but thereâ(TM)s a lot of logistic to build are making sure people dont bring relatives to have them killed to get their money.
In the USA, the scheme is to insure that your money is extracted before you die. So they will treat you with drugs that draw out the cognitive decline as much as possible. Then (conjecture here) when you have no more money to give the nursing home, they allow you to die.
Having seen the process firsthand with some family members, my hope is that if I come down with that, I can check out myself during the early stages. Getting to watch a loved one take 10 years to die, the last several as just a mindless
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Seems to me if a theorized-to-be telltale sign of Alzheimer's isnt present in a staggering number of people that are specifically not diagnosed with Alzheimer's,
then it maybe a physical manifestation of the cognitive by-products of personality disorders from the production of peptides in the brain.
SAD - Standard American Diet (Score:2)
Nope!
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Right, it's also called diabetes type 3. Cutting down carbs (especially refined) should be first step in treatment and avoidance.
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Nice that you have the cause of and solution to one of this disease, have you published your scientific findings yet? We're all waiting. /s
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Steven Masley "The better brain solution"
The knowledge is there, is something changing?
Here is another one for you:
Over 20 years ago, a book "The heat is on" was written by Ross Gelbspan about global warming and the denial about it.
In this book, it was outlined that the warming itself is not so much the issue but the increase
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Another one:
Have you experienced a person close to you going through this until the very end, and what that does that to you?
Me thinks this would drive the smart-assy-ness right out of you!
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I don't think they meant literally asking them "Do you have dementia?" But going from the question, "Do you have dementia?" and answering it by asking the other questions which would say "Yes you do." or "No you don't." But that line of questioning wouldn't catch those without symptoms, but with the pathology. The idea is to examine those without the symptoms to find if they have the pathology. This could help to find how early the disease begins to develop before any symptoms show up.
I thought I had heard something about that (Score:1)
But I couldn't be sure
Breaking news (Score:2)
[fiddles with earpiece]
Source of error found: it seems they counted them, forgot they'd done it, and then counted them again.
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No U.