The myth of Alzheimer's disease

For some decades now, doctors have insisted that Alzheimer's disease is NOT just "senility", a normal age related condition. They point out and emphasize that some very old people -- not very many, of course -- have excellent memories and overall cognitive function, and also that some fairly young people -- again, not very many -- do have severe memory and cognition problems. However, this changes nothing. In general, as the body decays with age, the brain decays along with it. Exceptions only serve to prove this very general rule. Now, of course, people would very much like to retain their youthful ability to think and remember things as they get older, so, there is inevitably no shortage of doctors and pharmeceutical companies who will insist that they have treatments and drugs that will cure the disease of "Alzheimer's", and they will indeed retain youthful brain function indefinitely. Of course, none of these treatments or drugs work worth a damn. However, this doesn't stop their eager purveyors to insist that they work very well indeed. And, by claiming they are merely correcting certain very specific problems in neural function, they can actually try to make a case for this. After all, it probably is possible to correct certain neural issues up to a point. Who is to say they can't? By lowering the bar to this extent, it is impossible to argue conclusively that they aren't accomplishing anything at all. Only, that they aren't accomplishing much. But, how much is enough? Now, if instead of classifying Alzheimer's as a distinct, narrowly defined syndrome, doctors went back to simply calling it "senility", age related brain dsyfuction, it would be much more difficult to claim a "cure", for the "disease". After all, it would have to be clear that the patients were actually growing younger again, in general, something that would be obvious to see, and that we obviously cannot do. So, the reason doctors claim Alzheimer's as a distinct "disease", is because otherwise, doctors would have to admit their own utter incompetence and ineffectiveness in the face of it. And, that would tend to undermine their incomes a bit, wouldn't it? #Alzheimers #Dementia #Medicine #Health #Pharma #Longevity #Philosophy #Science