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FALL 1995 ISSUE

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SINAI HOSPITAL

HealthNews'- '

Numerous
treatable
medical
problems
can mimic
Alzheimer's.

S P EC IAL ADVERT IS EM ENT

Alzheimer's Disease

lzheimer's disease is
surely one of the most
mysterious and most
dreaded worries of ag-
ing. The most common
cause of dementia or
cognitive disturbance, it is a pro-
gressive disorder that slowly dis-
ables the brain, wiping out the
memory, then progressively erod-
ing intellect, judgment, personal-
ity, and emotional affect.
"Alzheimer's is a devastating
loss of nerve cells throughout the

Small Strides

brain. It typically begins between
70 and 80 years of age,” explains
Sinai Hospital's Clinical Neuro-
science Center neurologist Peter
LeWitt, MD.
At the turn of the century, when
Alois Alzheimer first described the
disease which now bears his name,
neurology was a young science.
The conventional wisdom among
physicians was that dementia (se-
nility) was an inevitable part of
growing old. Although Alzheimer's
is an age- related disease, attitudes

have become much more enlight-
ened. Researchers are able to dif-
ferentiate many underlying causes
of dementia, but they have little
information to explain why some
elderly people get Alzheimer's
and most others do not. "Many
people at age 95 are spared from
Alzheimer's," says Dr. LeWitt. "If
you survive to that age, you often
have a mind that has been pre-
served well enough to keep you
functioning," he notes.
However, about four million

Americans do have Alzheimer's,
and one out of every seven indi-
viduals in the United States over
age 70 has the disease or will de-
velop it in the next five years.
Because of the steady deteriora-
tion that is characteristic of the dis-
ease, families often bear special
burdens, emotionally and finan-
cially. The demands on the family
members who become caregivers
are relentless. Because the con-
dition is listed as a mental disor-

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