Why Don t More People Know About This Deadly Disease

Why don’t more people know about this deadly disease? Why is there not more funding pouring in from around the nation? After all, a disease that claims the lives of about 1,920 people ages 65 and up per day (700,000 per year) (â€Å"Facts And Figures†) deserves a little more attention. Remember, this number is just the deaths and doesn’t even include the over five million people who currently live with Alzheimer’s (â€Å"Facts and Figures†) or those who must step up daily and reteach their loved ones the most pedestrian of tasks time after time. So join me, as I travel through this Ivers 3 largely underestimated disease and some of its biggest misconceptions. The Alzheimer s disease itself is not the most dangerous factor in this issue. No, by†¦show more content†¦A woman came into his clinic with extreme paranoia and memory loss. The patient did not survive, and upon further observation of her brain, Dr. Alzheimer found a gathering of unidentifiable material around and within her nerve cells. Also, the brain was below average size, indicating brain shrinkage (â€Å"Milestones†). Since its discovery, Alzheimer s has leapt to 6th place on the United Ivers 4 State’s list of leading causes of death (â€Å"Facts and Figures†). This disease tends to hit close to home for many of us as it ranks third for causes of death in the state of North Dakota (ND Statistics†). This disease kills more people than are killed by the first and second ranking most common cancers (which are skin and lung cancer) combined (â€Å"Facts and Figures†). An estimated 10,000 will die from melanoma skin cancer in the coming year (â€Å"Skin Cancer†)and there were over 160,00 deaths from lung cancer in 2012(â€Å"Common Cancers†). While these are large numbers, they are still several hundred thousand less than were claimed by Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer s has been fast-growing with deaths having skyrocketed almost 70% in just 13 years (â€Å"Facts and Figures†), which is another reason people must be more aware of this epidemic. People who are just thirty years old can get a less common, but still very real, type of Alzheimer’s known as â€Å"early onset Alzheimer’s† which generally is found in those 40 to 50 years old (â€Å"Top