ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s, a disease that slowly robs one of their memory and alters behavior, and almost half of all people over age 85 will develop the disease in their lifetime. “Early diagnosis is important because the sooner you start medication, the better chance you have of delaying the progression,” says Steven Arnold, MD, a neurologist and geriatric psychiatrist and associate director the University of Pennsylvania’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center. “Over the last 20 years, there have been amazing advances in research and there are now medicines in late-phase clinical trials that may be able to clear the brain of the disease or prevent it from forming.”