Page 32 - Summer2014

Type 3 Diabetes:

Metabolic Causes of Alzheimer's Disease

by Amy Berger, MS, NTP

s the population of the industrialized world ages,

illnesses associated with aging consume a larger
Aportion of our healthcare budgets and impose

increasing burdens on the quality of life of patients and their
caregivers. Estimates suggest that in the U.S., Alzheimer’s

disease (AD) affects 12 percent of people over age 65 and
nearly 50 percent of those over 85, with predictions for this

to include 16 million people by 2050. National healthcare
1
costs associated with AD are expected to surpass one tril-

lion dollars by mid-century. 1

Considering the fact that AD has no known cure and current therapies
are largely ineffective, identifying the triggering mechanisms and exacerbat-
ing factors behind AD is of paramount importance, as prevention and early
detection would serve to decrease—or at the very least delay—the physical,
emotional and financial hardships this illness creates. Prevention is also
critical because AD symptoms often do not appear until loss of functional
neurons is so widespread that irreversible damage has already occurred.

32 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2014 Wise Traditions

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