Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is fast becoming a household name off late.AD is a devastating progressive disease that robs the person of his memory and mental abilities. The afflicted person will need complete help of others in all activities of daily living. From the time of diagnosis the person can be expected to live for anything from 2 to 10 years on the average. Alzheimer’s being the disease of the aged is more commonly found in ageing societies of Western Europe and North America where as much as 40 million are diagnosed with this disease. Worse only one in two Alzheimer’s patients are actually diagnosed clinically. As years go by and the as society ages the cases are Alzheimer’s are only set to increase further. Those above the age of 60 have a 15% chance of developing Alzheimer’s. Those above 70 years of age have a 30% chance of developing Alzheimer’s. The risk is almost 50% for those above the age of 80 years. One in two among those who are 80 years of age will develop Alzheimer’s. Though AD is a disease of the aged around 7% of the diagnosed cases are those below the age of 60 years.

Sooner or later we will be forced to confront AD. Our loved ones – Grandparents, parents, siblings and as we grow older ourselves could be at the risk of this disease Each year a total of 20 million Americans provide a total of 25 billion hours per year of unpaid care to their ;loved ones with Alzheimer’s’ disease. As of 2014 the total cost of caring for Alzheimer’s patients in America alone was $220 billion. Of this Medicare paid $120 Billion and Medicaid paid $40 Billion remaining $60 billion had to be spent from the pocket of family members and relatives.

Health care system in North America and Western Europe is completely overwhelmed. This burden is only going to increase further as the society ages. Doctors and the medical fraternity have no time to teach patients or their family members/caregivers about Alzheimer’s disease. All they do now and can do now is to merely asses the condition and prescribe some medicines that can alleviate the conditions to some extent. Remember no medicines currently available in the market can cure or delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. They can at the most reduce the aggression, delay the progression and decrease the severity temporarily.

Surprisingly there are several non-pharmaceutical interventions that can be made in order to increase the quality of life of both the Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. These cost nothing but can in many ways be even more beneficial than many medicines. This book gives detailed information on several such non-medical interventions.

Prevention is the best form of treatment – especially in the case of Alzheimer’s disease where there is no meaningful treatment. All of you are at the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It is your duty to yourself, the society and the country that you take all the steps to prevent it. Yes it is our duty to the society and the country. It is a loss for the country and society to lose anyone to Alzheimer’s disease.

It is true that many of the factors that lead to AD like genetics are not in our hand but many factors are indeed within our ability. By taking adequate steps well in advance we can prevent or delay the onset of AD significantly. This book explains in detail various steps we can take immediately to reduce the risks of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The book is divided into 32 chapters. Technical and medical language is avoided and information is given in simple language that anyone can understand. Brief information about the chapters and their content are as below.