Is Alzheimer’s disease an inevitable part of ageing?
The risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease increases with age – it is present in 5% of people over the age of 65 and 25-30% of people over 85 years. However, most researchers would resist the temptation to categorise AD as an inevitable part of normal ageing. There are many sprightly 90 year olds who do not suffer from Alzheimer’s, and there are occasional cases where Alzheimer’s disease develops in people as young as 40 years old. If Alzheimer’s disease develops before the age of 65 years it is referred to as early onset AD. There are about 17,000 people with early onset dementia in the United Kingdom the majority of which is AD.
