Normal aging versus Alzheimer's disease and the potential for prevention: Understanding normal aging may provide the key to prevention
[15 January 2004 - EurekAlert - New York] Our improved understanding of how to maintain normal brain health is providing tantalizing clues about what may prevent or reduce the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to Marilyn Albert, Ph.D., a leading authority on risk factors and AD. "The normal aging of the brain is very different from what happens in AD. The old thinking was that the normal cognitive changes in aging were the result of cell loss throughout the brain," said Dr. Albert, director of the division of cognitive neuroscience, department of neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chair of the Alzheimer's Association Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee. "We now know that while there is some cell loss in the aging brain, cell loss in the areas responsible for memory is normally very limited." Dr. Albert spoke today at an American Medical Association media briefing on Alzheimer's disease in New York City. ...