Alzheimer's Disease (cont.)
Who develops Alzheimer's disease?
The main risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is increased age. As a population ages, the
frequency of Alzheimer's disease continues to increase. Ten percent of people over 65
years of age and 50% of those over 85 years of age have Alzheimer's disease. Unless new treatments are developed to decrease
the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease, the number of individuals with
Alzheimer's disease in the United
States is expected to be 14 million by the year 2050.
There are also genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. Most patients develop
Alzheimer's disease after
age 70. However, 2%-5% of patients develop the disease in the fourth or fifth decade of
life (40s or 50s). At least half
of these early onset patients have inherited gene mutations associated with
their Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, the children of a patient with early onset
Alzheimer's disease who has one of
these gene mutations has a 50% risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
There is also a genetic risk for late onset cases. A relatively common form
of a gene located on chromosome 19 is associated with late onset Alzheimer's
disease. In the
majority of Alzheimer's disease cases, however, no specific genetic risks have yet been
identified.
Other risk factors for Alzheimer's disease include
high blood pressure
(hypertension), coronary artery disease, diabetes, and possibly elevated blood
cholesterol. Individuals who have completed less than eight years of education
also have an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. These factors increase the
risk of Alzheimer's disease, but by no means do they mean that Alzheimer's
disease is inevitable in persons with
these factors.
All patients with Down syndrome will develop the brain changes of Alzheimer's
disease by 40 years of age. This fact was also a clue to the "amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease" (see
section later in this article).
Next: What are the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease? »
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