Alzheimer's Disease Affects 'Twice As Many People' As Experts Thought (nypost.com)

schwit1 shares a report from the New York Post: In the U.S., 5.8 million people are living with the debilitating condition, according to the Alzheimer's Association, and that number is projected to rise to nearly 14 million by 2050. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota believe, however, that many more people are probably already living with it without having a formal diagnosis. They've been using brain imaging to give a definite answer as to how many people are affected. Tests on 2,500 people have shown that double the number of people have telltale signs of protein plaques and tangles in the brain -- markers of Alzheimer's disease -- even if they're not experiencing dementia. "The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease is all based on clinical assessment. It's just based on the question 'Do you have dementia?'" Dr. Jack Clifford, the Alexander Family professor of Alzheimer's disease research at the Mayo Clinic, told The Telegraph. "Classically defined Alzheimer's undercounts people who have the pathology but do not have symptoms. A lot more people have the disease but do not have symptoms, just like a lot more people have hypertension than have had a stroke, or a lot more people have diabetes than people who have gone blind."

Comments

Biological markers

[manu0601]

If you can live with the disease biological marker and without the disease, it means the biological marker does not tells us much about the disease.

Re:Biological markers

[sjames]

Not necessarily. Some diseases show few signs at first until the suffer suddenly decompensates. That is, it appears to come on suddenly when it's actually been at a slow boil for some time, then it crosses a threshold.

Re:Biological markers

[Megol]

Ever wondered if maybe it's you that have difficulty understanding the world rather than there being conspiracies everywhere?

Re:Smoke and mirrors

[Dayze!Confused]

I don't think they meant literally asking them "Do you have dementia?" But going from the question, "Do you have dementia?" and answering it by asking the other questions which would say "Yes you do." or "No you don't." But that line of questioning wouldn't catch those without symptoms, but with the pathology. The idea is to examine those without the symptoms to find if they have the pathology. This could help to find how early the disease begins to develop before any symptoms show up.