Neurologist Discusses Alzheimer's

The answer is both. The number of people with Alzheimer's disease is growing very rapidly and the main reason for this dramatic growth is that we are living longer. Over the last century, average life expectancy increased by 27 years. Millions of people now live to ages where they are at high risk of Alzheimer's disease. The number of people in the United States with Alzheimer's is expected to more than triple by the middle of the century. This is a huge public health problem that we are facing.

It is also true that we are better at diagnosing this disease and have improved our ability to make the diagnosis earlier in the course of the disease. Although these improvements have had an impact on our numbers, it is much smaller than the effect of the growing numbers of elderly.

The problem of Alzheimer's is essentially worldwide because life expectancy has increased throughout the world. Even less-developed countries are experiencing a growth of the numbers of people with Alzheimer's.