Alzheimers and an aging population

Dementia is a hot topic and with an aging population it is not surprising that Alzheimer’s disease takes center stage when age related conditions are discussed; unfortunately, it often overshadows the other forms of dementia. If you spent time with a person with Alzheimer’s disease, you will see a gradual decay in their ability to remember; diagnosis of the condition has improved dramatically and is now approximately 87 – 94 percent accurate. The world started focusing on the disease only about thirty years ago although was first discovered in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, a German physician; it is a complex disease that is not yet fully understood.Studies have shown that the greatest known risk for developing Alzheimer’s is increasing age. Often, a person experiencing their first signs of Alzheimer’s is unable or unwilling to admit it to themselves or anyone else; until this happens it is hard to start any form of treatment.Dementia covers quite a broad spectrum of problems but they are all, including Alzheimer’s disease, currently treated in a similar fashion. Unfortunately, because there is still so much that is unknown about the disease, there is no definite way to treat it although some symptoms can be improved or slowed down with drugs. The three main medications currently approved for treatments of Alzheimer’s disease are: Donepezil, Tacrine, and Rivastigmine; improvements have shown to help the average sufferer’s cognitive abilities by up to six months.Another drug, Memantine, a relative of the older anti-influenza drug Amantadine, is proving successful at slowing down the mental decline of sufferers; it is now normally given to those on Donepezil who are suffering moderate to severe Alzheimer’s. Although Memantine is not a wonder medication, it is showing success where other medicines gave not and with few side effects; most of the drug is passed out again when the patient urinates (about 80 percent), virtually without any change taking place.The average age of a person living in the industrialized world is increasing which is making Alzheimer’s disease a major health issue to be looked into; it is a major cause of death in America. Although contracting the disease is a tragedy, the cost of treatment and care for sufferers is causing economic vibrations everywhere; the annual cost of treatment and care for sufferers is in excess of 40 billion dollars and is expected to rise well beyond this in the future. Nearly half the annual budget was spent on research into the condition last year by the National Institute of Aging; they are now testing over three hundred compounds at any one time.To help you reduce the chance of contracting dementia, it’s important to adopt a healthy lifestyle, choose carefully what you eat and drink and take more exercise. In fact researchers believe the happier and healthier someone is with Alzheimer’s, the slower his or her decline. At the time of writing this condition primarily affects men and women over sixty years of age; there have however, been recent occasions (although rare) where a younger person has developed this condition.