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The US healthcare system is not ready
for the epidemic of Alzheimer's disease that will hit in
the next decade as baby boomers age.
Dr. Steven T. DeKosky, director of the
Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
presented his findings at a briefing sponsored by the American
Medical Association.
There are currently 34.8 million Americans
65 years and older, 4.3 million of whom are 85 or older.
Dementia strikes 3% of people aged 65 to 74, 19% of those
75 to 84, and up to 47% of people 85 and older.
The number
of people with Alzheimer's is expected to triple over the
next 30 to 40 years.
This disease would break Medicare and
Medicaid all by itself. So strategies for diagnosing Alzheimer's
early and treating or even preventing the disease are urgently
needed. Delaying the disease course by 5 years could cut
its prevalence in half and delaying it by 10 years could
potentially wipe it out.
Training the immune system to sweep
up amyloid plaques, the abnormal protein fragments that
collect in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, has been
found to be effective in mice. Preliminary trials in humans
have found this approach is safe. Other promising avenues
include drugs called neurotrophic factors, which prevent
nerve cell death, and drugs that prevent the formation of
fibrillary tangles in the brain.
AMA Briefing
June 7, 2001 New York, NY
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