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Alzheimer's disease, a complex degenerative brain disorder, is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050

Alzheimer's disease, a complex degenerative brain disorder, is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050, and with an increasing aging population, is set to become one of the most costly diseases to the United States, currently estimated at about $100 billion a year. This week, the Alzheimer's Association convenes an International Conference (ICAD) to look at the latest research on diagnosing, treating and preventing the disease. While many sufferers of dementia are assumed to have developed Alzheimer’s, the disease can only be officially diagnosed in an autopsy. On this week’s agenda are developments that could become the first-ever test to diagnose living patients, as well as analyses of the cost of burden to a healthy society of caregivers who will increasingly be linked to Alzheimer’s sufferers.

Guest:

Dr. Daniel Chain, founder of Intellect Neurosciences; Alzheimer’s researcher

William Thies, chief medical & scientific officer of the Alzheimer’s Association