Page 136 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

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CHAPTER 13

Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

SOME OF YOU MAY FEAR GETTING Alzheimer's disease, and it is useful to know the basic facts about
this illness. Also, understanding the boundaries between mild memory loss and Alzheimer's disease
can help in developing your strategy to prevent memory loss.

Does Everyone Eventually Get Alzheimer's Disease?

Several years ago, Denis Evans's research group at Harvard conducted a survey in East Boston and
found that literally half the people above the age of eighty met diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's
disease. Their results suggested that Alzheimer's disease, not memory loss due to aging, was the
normal clinical course for people as they grew older. However, other investigators have since
reported much lower rates of Alzheimer's disease in octogenarians. As I discussed in an earlier
chapter, if performance on cognitive tests is corrected for age and education, then few people meet
criteria for dementia, or Alzheimer's disease more specifically. But if absolute cutoff scores on
cognitive tests are used to make the diagnosis without accounting for the impact of age or education,
then a large proportion of elderly people will meet the diagnostic criteria for dementia, primarily
Alzheimer's disease.