On a side note I know alot of people(not related to me) that are being affected with severe memory issues in their 60's and 70's. A friends Dad is in a memory care facility and he is in his mid 60's and was extremely fit(he was also a avid hunter - unsure if this was a cause). My Wife's aunt's Mom (not related by blood to her) has severe dementia and is in her 70's and needs $7k a month constant memory care. A friends mom has sundowners and every day her memory "erases", my Friend was looking into memory care for her and was quoted $13k a month for this. All these cases seem quite strange as the individuals led normal lives and then just started suffering these extreme memory/brain issues. I do not know what is causing it but I think its alot more widespread than people know.
Without having much experience with early onset Alzheimer’s, I had always assumed that healthcare keeping people alive longer allowing people to live long enough to develop it was the reason it seemed to be more and more prevalent.
All I guess I really know for sure is that it’s a horrible fucking disease.
And you raise an important point... We're living longer. Medicine is getting better at that*. But we're not living better. In fact, afaik, a significant percentage of healthcare spending in is the last couple years of life.
* The same can be said of war. Fewer soldiers are dying but the otherside of that coin more survivors are ruined forever. Less death shouldn't make war any more acceptable.
I think to a degree we live better to a point*, but at a certain point of no return that longevity benefit of modern healthcare can create a poor quality of life where the peace of death would be preferable.