Published: November 17, 2010
Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia that causes a decline in memory and other cognitive abilities. As our aging population booms, the Alzheimer’s epidemic will increasingly become a critical issue, not just for the elderly and their families, but also for society at large. BigThinks four-week series focuses on the latest research and thinking about Alzheimer’s, including cutting-edge advances in detection, prevention, and treatment.
While much remains unknown about the deadly disease, advances in research have shed new light on its mechanisms, and on how dementia affects the aging brain. Alzheimer’s disease is an incurable—and ultimately deadly—form of dementia that causes loss of memory and other cognitive abilities. A degenerative disorder, the disease unravels the fundamental functions of the brain over time, taking with it many components of personality and identity. An estimated 5.3 million people in the U.S. currently have Alzheimer’s, and each year the disease ranks as the nation’s sixth or seventh leading cause of death. In 2007 alone, over 74,000 Americans died from Alzheimer’s.Curious? Continue reading
Source: BigThink
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A new study finds drug abuse is becoming a growing problem with older Americans. As Ben Tracy reports, more than 12 percent of those seeking treatment are 50 or over.
Source: CNN
Published: April 24, 2008
According to geriatrician and internist David Chess M.D., a new study from the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests an unsettling prognosis for the future medical care of aging American baby boomers.The generation born after World War II will face potential jeopardy if healthcare changes are not made swiftly enough. The problem: an aging population faced with an imperfect healthcare system that does not place enough emphasis on geriatric care. Medicare is already in serious financial trouble, and new rules to financially shore up the program are likely to drive more and more doctors from participation, especially those in primary care. According to Dr. Chess, that will only exacerbate problems identified in the study, which include too few specialists in geriatric medicine, insufficient training, underpaid primary care and geriatric physicians, and a failure of Medicare to support new strategies. [continue reading…]
