"Ophelia" > wrote in
:

>
>
> "Alan Holbrook" > wrote in message
> . 3.30...
>> notbob > wrote in
>> :
>>
>
> Well, I for one am very interested in the discussion. This is
> something that can hit any one of our families and I know
absolutely
> nothing about it. Given that 'cooking' isn't discussed in every
> thread, I don't see the harm in it if you wanted to continue.

OK, Ophelia, it isn't difficult to persuade me to keep discussing
the topic. Between the fact that my wife has the disease and that
I'm doing as much as I can as an advocate/volunteer, I'm obviously
quite passionate about it. Yes, Alzheimer's can hit any one of
our families, and because there is this little known variation
called Younger Onset AD, it can hit any one of us. Using US
numbers, about 1.75% of the population (5.5 million people out of
a population of 314,000,000) has the disease, and about 5% of that
1.75% (around 250,000 people) is under age 65 when diagnosed.
Huge numbers? No, but I still wouldn't want to play Russian
Roulette, even if the revolver had a very large number of
chambers. And because of how long AD sufferers can survive
physically and how much care they need during their lifetimes,
it's the most expensive disease per capita on the planet, with the
potential to absolutely crush healthcare systems worldwide as
populations age and live longer (one in every two people in the US
over 85 has the disease). It's the 6th leading cause of death in
the US, and it's the only one of the 6 whose death rate is
increasing. And it's also the least funded in terms of government
dollars for research of the top 6. And research into causes and
cures is still in the stage of eliminating blind alleys rather
than having 6-lane superhighways to continue down, so it's
probably going to be a while before there's much progress of the
kind that will be of immediate help.

There's a lot of information available on the web (surprise,
surprise!). A good place to start (sorry, notbob, but I believe
their basic information is quite good...) is the Alzheimer's
Association's web site, www.alz.org. Bless you for wanting to
learn more, but I warn you, when you start looking for
information, it's going to be like drinking from a fire hose.
Take small sips.