What are your odds of getting Alzheimer’s?
The latest Alzheimer’s disease information shows that your odds are fairly low. While your risk for Alzheimer’s disease increases with age, more people will have a heart attack, heart disease, respiratory disease or diabetes. According to TIME magazine, “Even in the 65-and-older age group, only 15% of people [with] mild cognitive impairment will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease.”
Because research has begun to identify the causes for Alzheimer’s disease, we can reduce our odds. To learn how, click on causes for Alzheimers or Alzheimers.org.)
“How can that be? I’ve heard that half of all 85 year olds have Alzheimer’s.”
According to the Government Accounting Office (GAO) (Congress calls them when they want accurate information), half of all people 95 years old or older – not 85 – have some form of Alzheimer’s. But, for about 1 in 4 Alzheimer’s patients, it doesn’t interfere with most of their normal activities of daily living. Most of these patients usually need someone’s help only to remind them to take their medicine and do other personal care activities.
While about half of the 95+ year olds are affected, almost everyone dies of other causes before they develop Alzheimer’s. For example, of everyone age 65 or older in 1975, only 4% had developed any form of the disease 20 years later in 1995.
Based on a recent report prepared by the Government Accounting Office and sent to Congress, and the National Vital Statistics Reports, prepared by the National Center for Health Statistics, we estimate the following lifetime risks for the average person from age 50 through 90.
| If you are now age |
Your lifetime risk is only |
Odds that you won’t get |
||
| 50 55 60 |
4.4% 4.6% 4.8% |
95.6% 95.4% 95.2% |
||
| 65 70 75 |
5.1% 6.6% 8.9% |
94.9% 93.4% 91.1% |
||
| 80 85 90 |
10.6% 12.2% 17.9% |
89.4% 87.8% 82.1% |
We also suggest that you take a look at the Johns Hopkins Memory Bulletin – Health Alerts. For people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, and the people caring for them, it can be crucial to get the most current, reliable information on treatment options. Where better for them to turn for cutting-edge advances in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia than Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, ranked #1 of America’s Best Hospitals for 16 years.
Finally, the National Institues of Health offers 4 very informative videos. Each one is 4 minutes or less.
| Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease Cognitive Testing for Alzheimer’s How Alzheimer’s Affects Neurons in the Brain The Nun Study |
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