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[slavemistress]

So on my train to and from work I keep saying posters that say "Alzheimers the disease that could bankrupt a nation."

What? How is this possible? Can someone explain this claim?

Serious and nonserious answer welcome

Comments

[gloraelin]

I think that it depends on whether you want to take the phrasing literally or a bit more figuratively. As people have said, Alzheimer's care is waaaaaaay more expensive than "standard" elder care, because of the need for extra staff and stuff. In addition, as the disease progresses, it starts to affect more than memory. As the plaques in the brain spread, they start to take over/disrupt/whatever motor function and coordination. Eventually, a person with Alzheimer's will be either wheelchair- or bed-ridden, as they can't "keep it together" enough to stand or sit correctly without straps or other padding.

All of this takes time and money, of course. It's also hell on people emotionally, and not just the family. Carers usually wind up needing a rotation away from memory care after a while, because it's so depressing and difficult. What makes it worse is that we don't really know what causes the disease in the first place. There's evidence in mouse/rat trials that certain parts of the disease "identity" [bad word but I can't think of the real one right now, oh ironic memory problems] can be passed from one being to another, but they don't know yet if it's just a marker or something that can trigger the recipient's body to start creating the plaques.

On top of all that, there is the possibility that they're talking of emotional bankruptcy. There are so many memories and lives that are being lost because of the disease, and there aren't many ways to retrieve those memories once the progression starts. From what I know, not a lot of people even try because so little is known about how to get them back. This ties in with the work that the Story Corps is doing, which is to try and record as many stories of previous years as possible before they're lost to time and death. It's a really interesting subject if you can get past the dreary medical speak.