Health: What You Need To Know About The Alzheimer's Epidemic

Medical science is working miracles lately. At times it seems like science fiction. We are transplanting faces onto injured individuals. Patients swallow cameras that videotape their travels through the gastrointestinal tract to find growths that would otherwise remain undiscovered.

Computer interfaces with the nervous system are restoring movement to those who have been paralyzed by accidents or war injuries. Great strides are also being made in research into the causes and cures of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Unfortunately, all of these magnificent new medical technologies are extremely expensive. We might not be able to afford them.

Advances are being made in the methods to diagnose Alzheimer's disease. However, the brain-scanning techniques being developed to visualize the amyloid plaques that characterize Alzheimer's disease will cost thousands of dollars for each patient. The new, technically-advanced tests of blood and cerebrospinal fluid to find markers of Alzheimer's disease will cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
After Alzheimer's disease has been diagnosed, the medications to treat the illness are also expensive. Today, such medication can cost up to $2,000 per person a year.

The next generation of medications to treat Alzheimer's disease are likely to be even more expensive. Unfortunately, the changes that Alzheimer's disease causes in the brain usually begin 15 years or more before any changes in memory and behavior are noted. Thus, by the time Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed, the damage is done and the expensive treatments do little more than slow the pathological processes down a little. Although methods are being developed to diagnose the illness at the earliest possible time, there are few indications that an accurate, simple and inexpensive method will arrive anytime soon.

With millions of new cases of dementia expected to develop over the next few years, medication alone will amount to billions of dollars. Nursing home care can easily cost $50,000 a year, with prices going up annually. In the next few years, the cost of treating Alzheimer's disease is expected to skyrocket. In 2005, Medicare spent $91 billion on the care and treatment of Alzheimer's patients.

By 2015, the expenditures are expected to be close to $200 billion. With the government going broke, and austere measures being implemented, it is clear that we simply cannot afford the current approach to the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease in the midst of a growing epidemic of the illness.

I believe the most reasonable stance to take is not to develop evermore technically advanced and expensive means to diagnose and treat Alzheimer's disease, but rather to assume that we are all at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, and that we must do what we can right now to minimize our risks for developing it.

Thankfully, there is a substantial and growing body of evidence that for many if not most people, the prevention -- or at least the postponement -- of Alzheimer's disease can be accomplished with simple, inexpensive changes in lifestyle.

Here are some simple ways you can prevent Alzheimier’s naturally:

1) Take Fish Oil Supplements
2) Exercise Daily
3) Do Crossword Puzzles
4) Read Something Challenging Daily
5) Eat Healthy
6) Engage In A Debate
7) Turn Off The T.V.
8) Control High Cholesterol
9) Get Enough Sleep
10) Practice Meditation
11) Think Positive Thoughts


The Ahmadiyya Post, Health. By Zubair Ahmed. Sept 19, 2011