106.2 Million Alzheimer’s Patients by 2050: Are Scientists Trying Desperately to Avert It?
Alzheimer’s disease is the most usual form of dementia in the world. It is one of the cruelest diseases known to medical science as although it is eventually a terminal condition sufferers may live in a distant world of tangled and forgotten memories, in many cases no longer able to communicate with the outside world, for many years.
The disease was first identified by the man for which it is named, a German neurologist and psychologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906. The disease manifests itself mainly in people over the age of 65, although cases of early onset Alzheimer’s are becoming less uncommon and can affect people far younger than that. In 2006 it was estimated that there were 26.6 million sufferers worldwide, and it was projected from those figures that by 2050 there may be as many as four times more than that, a grim prospect that medical professionals and scientific researchers are trying desperately to avert.
The actual causes and progression of Alzheimer’s disease are still poorly understood by medical science. Current research indicates the involvement of plaques and tangles that form in the brain and although there are many theories as to why such things occur there has been nothing that can be shown to definitively cause the onset or progression of Alzheimer’s.
Often the early symptoms of the disease are mistaken for the simple signs of aging. Fading memory is often chalked up to old age, as is the occasional mental confusion.
An Alzheimer’s diagnosis is usually made after a combination of brain imaging and cognitive function tests. The symptoms of the early and mid stages of the disease, such as the loss of short term memory, the inability to perform tasks that involve finer motors skills and occasional mental confusion eventually give way to a state in which the patient cannot live without the aid of caregivers and often they become unable to utter anything but a few sentences that often make no sense. Lethargy and fatigue sets in, and the muscles begin to waste, most often leaving the patient bedridden until their eventual death, usually from a secondary cause such as ulcerations or pneumonia, not from the Alzheimer’s itself.
There are four drugs approved by the FDA that are increasingly prescribed in an attempt to slow the development of the disease, but none can cure it. Behavioral and sensory therapies are also used ti try to prolong the length of time Alzheimer’s patients lead what might be called a “happier” life but again, with varying degrees of success.
As it is such a prevalent condition, Alzheimer’s now attracts a great deal of media attention and many notable people are known to suffer from, or have died as a result of the disease. Former President Ronald Reagan was one such notable and he even agreed to be a part of a study to monitor the progression of his condition.
One of the earliest people to admit publically they had Alzheimer’s was the much loved American actress Rita Hayworth. However when she first became ill in the late ‘60s little was known about the disease and as she did have a history of rather heavy drinking when stressed many of her own family and friends as well as the media chalked her increasingly strange behavior up to alcoholism, even though no one actually saw her drinking any more than usual. In 1980, after what her daughter the Princess Yasmin Aga Khan described as “two decades of hell’ she was finally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
After her mother’s death in 1987, the Princess devoted her life to cause of Alzheimer’s prevention and the search for a cure. The foundation she founded at still presides over as president – Alzheimer’s Disease International – has raised millions of dollars over the years as well as increasing public awareness about the disease.
September 19th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
My mother passed away last week from this heartless painful
disease.It sucks to see your mom waste away after 8 years
of this horrible disease.Never once did my mom ever complain that she was condemmn with this heavy cross.
They have to find a cure for this wasteful disease.
I ache for her to die she gone now and I miss her madly.
Mom when you get home please turn on the light at the door .
I’ll be seeing you soon.Please keep your wings open for me.
I LOVE YOU.
MS.Mac in LOS ANGELE