November 25, 2013

Women Are Disproportionately Affected By Alzheimer's, As Patients And Caregivers

By Meryl Comer

Alzheimer's disease is plaguing the public psyche in two ways -- both as a global economic disaster waiting to happen and up close and personal as the insidious stalker in the room that anyone over 40 should fear. The pervasive, destructive, costly effects of this debilitating disease become even more profound as Baby Boomers age; doubling every five years after age 65.

Fear this intruder if you value your brain: your intellect, abstract thinking, the ability to communicate, your independence and dignity. According to researchers, the creep of entrapment begins 10 to 20 years before revealing itself through more obvious outward symptoms, eventually depriving not only an individual, but their family, of their future. The final insult- life ends with a final act of forgetting: the brain simply forgets how to breathe. Alzheimer's disease affects as many as five million Americans and many millions more worldwide; it is, without any doubt, a devastating force in our aging planet.

Read the full piece online here.