The End of Memory
A Natural History of Aging and Alzheimer's
Canadian Edition: Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. | January 2015
American Edition: Thomas Dunne Books | St. Martin’s Press |Sept 29, 2015
It has been called ‘the plague of the 21st century’ for its dramatic increase in numbers and the challenge it poses to health care. There are no effective treatments, merely a handful of drugs that promise only short-lived alleviation of symptoms.
As familiar as we are with Alzheimer’s disease among friends and family, there are so many questions: where did it come from? Why weren’t we talking about it even fifty years ago? Do we understand what really is going on in the disease? A hundred years ago Alois Alzheimer studied the brain of his first patient and identified the key markers of the disease; we still rely on them today. But given the lack of success in treatment, maybe it’s time for a rethink. Speed is of the essence: so far the development of new drugs has been slow and disappointing, while life expectancy is steadily increasing, bring more and more into the vulnerable age range.