The Alzheimer Conundrum: Entanglements of Dementia and Aging

Description

Due to rapidly aging populations, the number of people worldwide experiencing dementia is increasing, and the projections are grim. Despite billions of dollars invested in medical research, no effective treatment has been discovered for Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. The Alzheimer Conundrum exposes the predicaments embedded in current efforts to slow down or halt Alzheimer’s disease through early detection of pre-symptomatic biological changes in healthy individuals. Based on a meticulous account of the history of Alzheimer’s disease and extensive in-depth interviews, Margaret Lock highlights the limitations and the dissent associated with biomarker detection. Lock argues that basic research must continue, but should be complemented by a public health approach to prevention that is economically feasible, more humane, and much more effective globally than one exclusively focused on an increasingly harried search for a cure. Margaret Lock is the Marjorie Bronfman Professor Emerita in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine and the Department of Anthropology at McGill University. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Orientations......Page 14 Chapter 1 Making and Remaking Alzheimer Disease......Page 39 Chapter 2 Striving to Standardize Alzheimer Disease......Page 64 Chapter 3 Paths to Alzheimer Prevention......Page 89 Chapter 4 Embodied Risk Made Visible......Page 113 Chapter 5 Alzheimer Genes: Biomarkers of Prediction and Prevention......Page 145 Chapter 6 Genome-Wide Association Studies: Back to the Future......Page 169 Chapter 7 Living with Embodied Omens......Page 187 Chapter 8 Chance Untamed and the Return of Fate......Page 220 Chapter 9 Transcending Entrenched Tensions......Page 242 Afterword: Portraits from the Mind......Page 256 Notes......Page 260 Bibliography......Page 290 Index......Page 314