Alzheimer’s Disease: Women Affected More Often than Men
Nearly 4.5 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in our country, and more than half of them are women, according to the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md. As the general population continues to age, this number is expected to increase significantly over the next few decades.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of brain disorders that interferes with a person’s ability to carry out daily activities. In AD, areas of the brain change and deteriorate, which causes a decline in cognition and memory functioning. In some patients, the deficits are large enough to get in the way of performing normal, everyday tasks.
There is evidence that AD affects women differently than men. “Many studies of gender differences in cognition have pointed to greater language deficits in women with Alzheimer’s disease as compared to men,” explains Michael S. Rafii, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Memory Disorders Clinic and an attending neurologist at the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer Disease Research Center at the University of California, San Diego.
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Check the figures. Now 5.3 million Americans have dementia.
by Susan Berg author of Adorable Photographs of Our Baby-Meaningful, Mind-Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones, and Involved Professionals, a book for those with dementia and an excellent resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals
http://dementiaviews.blogspot.com
I wonder if there is a significant difference when you factor out the fact that women have a longer lifespan? It's still a big issue and I understand the challenges of dealing with this - my grandmother had AD and it affected our whole family.