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The Sixth Leading Cause Of Alzheimer's Disease

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Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease of unknown cause that is the most common form of dementia. Alzheimer’s usually starts in late middle age or in old age and results in progressive memory loss, impaired thinking, disorientation and changes in personality and mood. It is an irreversible, progressive disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills which leads to the eventual inability to carry out the simplest tasks. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older adults. Alzheimer’s disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer who noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness in 1906. Her symptoms included memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable …show more content…

Of the estimated 5.5 million Americans living with this disease, an estimated 5.3 million are age 65 and older. Approximately 200,000 individuals are under age 65 and have younger-onset Alzheimer’s diease. One in ten people age 65 and older has Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Every 66 seconds someone in the United States develops the disease. It kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. Deaths from Alzheimer’s increased 68% between 200 and 2010. This disease is affecting more and more people each day and becoming a real problem in the United States. Unless Alzheimer’s can be effectively treated or prevented, the number of people with it will increase significantly if current population trends …show more content…

This includes an evaluation of all federally-funded efforts in research, care and services. It must outline priority actions to reduce the financial impact on federal programs and families, improve health outcomes of all those diagnosed, improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and programs. NAPA enables Congress and the American people to answer this simply question: Did we make satisfactory progress this past year in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease? Unless we create an effective, dementia-capable system that finds new solutions to providing high quality care, provides community support services and programs, and address Alzheimer’s disease health disparities, Alzheimer’s disease will overwhelm the health care system in the coming years. Luckily, there are biotechnology companies trying to solve the growing problems that Alzheimer’s disease is presenting to the public. Despite repeated failures in clinical trials, leading pharmaceutical companies continue to invest time and capital in finding Alzheimer’s disease treatments. 99 percent of therapies in the past decade have come up short. Scientists are bitterly divided on the issue of targeting amyloid to effect the progression of

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