i wonder how this will affect insurance? will they not have to pay any longer for alzheimers? just a thought but things like this have to do with money in the end.

I agree Mr. Blinn the almighty dollar is lurking around this new "classification". My mom had a case of MCI and now they don't even label what is going on anymore- but who knows when she crossed over -the fact is she's declining and whatever it is - it is clearly the memory part of the brain being effected. Does it really matter what it is called? It is a drain on families physically, financially, emotionally... and it will only get worse as more baby boomers enter the medicare system. So clearly I think there may be some posturing taking place here.

I am surprised although maybe I'm just a bit ahead of myself. Usually something like this happens after a new drug or vaccine is developed. Then they can take the statistics a year or two later and trumpet how the incidence of the disease plummeted after the new drug came on the market.

So, I have to assume this impacts healthcare coverage as well. Someone diagnosed with this made-up condition is not going to receive the same amount of care and coverage as someone who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. What a joke. Alzheimer's is Alzheimer's whether in the early stages or the advanced stages.

Don't any of you people think this Alzheimers crap is becoming a epidemic just like cancer.It really makes you wonder what the Hell is Really Going On.

Doesn't it Occur to any of you people?

I find it just a tad strange!

Strange that they would change this and the diagnosis criteria for Autism as well. A lot of backscratching going on.

First Autism and now this. I guess if we close our eyes and say we don't see anything the disease will just go away. Reclassifying something doesn't solve the problem. It is so sad that our health care system is so messed up that we have now resorted to changing the diagnosis in order to control costs and insurance claims.

Ever wonder why neurological disorders are becoming more and more prevalent. Look to the skies. Day in and day out we are being bombarded from the air with various elements being dumped from aircraft and other delivery methods. Much of it is oxidized Au. Why? It's called geo-engineering. Google it. Ask why the lines from planes turn into clouds that criss cross the skies sometimes in circled or curved patterns. Look up the American Meteorological Society and the IPCC. Your health is being sacrificed for global warming and you have no say in it.

i find it rather interesting that so many diseases such as alzheimers and autism are suddenly being redefined along with the sudden change in how often women should have mammograms and men should have prostrate screening. seems more and more will not be covered under our new wonderful all people will be insured health care system

I guess I fit into this category. The wife accuses me of "selective memory" and especially when she tells me something and an hour later I ask her a question that is exactly what she says she was talking about! Won't even address the sex topic.... may have been a week ago but I insist it's been a month.

And this is just the start of a whole new criteria for every illness and disease, thanks to ObamaCare. Now the government, instead of doctors and the medical community, get to decide what criteria to use when diagnosing you. When you liberals are sitting in your rocking chairs with drool sliding down your mouth and can't get medical attention becuase your president says you're healthy, remember, you got what you asked for.

Jim....agreed sir. Heck, the end result of Obama Care may very well be the recreation of final scene in Solient Green when Charlton Heston yells our..."The wafers ARE people!"

It is sad that government looks at it's seniors as a bottom-line commodity. Doesn't matter if you work your ass off for 40-50 years paying into the system...god help you when you hang it up and retire. No longer considered a cash cow, a "contributor"....you've out-lived your purpose.

Where is Obama Care...I'd like to sign up? I pay $430 a month for singular me to have a decent Health insurance. My daughter has NO insurance and no reasonable options since she makes minumum wage. Her decision is Healthcare or food! The only thing I see is a fine that she will pay because she doesn't have Healthcare! I have an idea...tell the IRS to take our monthly Healthcare costs right off the top of our income (no taxes on our premiums) and then maybe it will be worth the expense for "good" plans to our citizens!! That sure should cut some red tape and not have to finance committees that spend billions to wonder how we can have Healthcare...that is...if the gov even really cares beyond collecting the fines and the income it generates.

people get old and their brains begin to not function so well. neither do their bones, muscles, eyes or ears. it is a normal, natural part of aging and dying. we used to say they were getting senile. they said my 81 year old father had alzheimers. bull- he was old and his brain was dying along with the rest of him. alzheimers is over-diagnosed, kind of like ADD.

i have known 2 women in my life, one a dear friend, who have been stricken with "younger onset" alzhiemers. for those of you on here who have never seen this terrifying disease in a younger person, let me explain what happens. "C" was diagnosed on her 49th birthday. 3 years later she died in a nursing home. she was curled up in a fetal position. she recognized no one. she did not know how to chew or swallow. she forgot how to breathe. my dear friend "E" had been behaving oddly. at first we thought maybe she was depressed- her mom had died recently. "e" was an intelligent, active, very organized and involved person. she stopped going out of the house, she stayed in her nightgown all day, she was losing weight rapidly, her immaculent house was starting to look disorganized and messy. depression, right? then she couldn't figure out how to button her clothes or work the dishwasher. at 63 she was diagnosed with alzhiemers. she is 65 now and in a nursing home. it won't be long before she forgets how to breathe. THAT is alzhiemers.

ISIS, thank you for the book referral, i will read it. i could not agree with you more concerning death. we have been taught to fear it, yet it is as normal and natural as being born.

Given the fact the over 50% of physicians in the workforce today are incompetent and are more interested in the "ch-ching," perhaps it really doesn't really matter what they call the condition. In fact, labeling someone as having "Alzheimer's" is just one of the many ways that physician's mask their own inability to get at the true cause of a person's condition. Typically a spouse or family member (the first to notice changes) is ignored by the physician at the early stage of cognitive impairment and the usual comment from the frontline Doc is that it's all about stress or depression. (Forget that the patient has been constipated for a year prior to onset, and thus is in the middle of a fully reversible metabolic disaster.) So the emphasis is to ignore the family members, get the patient in and out the door with script in hand for stress and schedule a follow-up in a month or so. (Ch-ching times two). When the patient returns, up the dose of whatever was given to offset symptoms, schedule a follow-up and perhaps a referral of some kind (to mainly distance the initial Dr. from responsibility.) This allows the first practitioner to essentially "pass the buck," and off the patient goes into the medical establishment's rat maze, emerging 3 years later in a now serious, irreversible neurodegenerative state, his or her fate sealed. And of course, now the real billing begins, and this is where the medical establishment really cleans up. Alzheimer's is a multi-billion dollar bonanza, there is no doubt.

Until Doctors deploy definitive diagnostics, they have no business dismissing a patient's condition as early stage Alzheimer's or anything for that matter. They should just say, "I dunno." By the way, real Alzheimer's may not be so much about the tau tangles themselves, but rather also very much about the destructive force of what is left behind at the cellular level, the cellular debris. A recent article from Melbourne, Australia points to iron which precipitates out and collects in the dying nerve/brain cells as something of notice and concern. Iron is essential to cellular respiration, and under normal conditions, comes and goes, but is otherwise very destructive.... you don't want it just hanging around. The Australian scientists found accumulated iron in cells along the path of destruction within the brain. Hardly anyone is currently studying iron's role in neurodegenerative conditions of all kinds. In the meantime, the system is rigged for the Ch-ching. Call it what you like, but to me it's a nightmare.

To insist that all MCI is Alzheimers is non-sense. However, iIt would be interesting to know how this new classification scheme will effect billing procedures, and if there will be a difference in what is allowable under one classification versus the other. I AM curious just to get some insight at to how the insurance companies are maneuvering. Perhaps it is meant to allow the Ins. Co's to more easily sideline these ("MCI") patients where there are less allowable tests or procedures and thus less cost.

If that is the case, then I would be an advocate for labeling all MCI as "Alzheimers" by default, until proven otherwise. Big Ins. is sand bagging enough as it is.

The redefinitions of things like autism and dementia are not some kind of plot, and have nothing to do with money. The DSM diagnostic manual has been undergoing a process of updating for the past two or three years. Experts across fields have been meeting in committees, reviewing the scientific literature, and using that information to try to better conceptualize and diagnose mental and emotional conditions. This is the first update in about 20 years, and long overdue. Imagine if medical science had not incorporated any new findings into their diagnostics in twenty years! The new manual will be published in the spring of next year, so committees are coming down to their final recommendations regarding diagnostic criteria, and this is why the information is starting to trickle out into the public realm. Those of us in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and other mental health professions have known about these proposed changes for about two years and have had the opportunity to offer feedback as part of the process. The insurance companies have nothing to do with this process.

I'm pleased with this change. There are so many people whose family could have them institutionalized or who could lose their rights, just because they've been diagnosed with "Alzheimer's disease." This limits such situations to only those who potentially could be a real danger to themselves or others. My family tends to live into their 90s and 100s, and most of them are clearer-headed at that age than many younger people who are just stressed by overwork. And most prefer to live alone and still do their own laundry, cook for themselves, and get plenty of exercise. They need transportation to shopping, church, and doctors, but not much else. Bravo for this more reasonable way of categorizing people.

If you look hard you will see the following text at the bottom of this article:

"A new study is underway involving drugs that may prevent Alzheimer's. NBC's Robert Bazell reports."

Don't be too worried about your failing memory. Some will develop Alzheimers, but others will not. This is the same old game being played by the drug industry. Put the fear into the American public then come out with a drug to correct the problem--or as we have seen in recent times, not correct anything and bringing along a mountain of bad side effects.

There are many reasons for memory problems: thyroid function, sleep apnea, disturbed sleep, underlying health problem, medications, and the list goes on. For me it was finding out that I had a problem with gluten, something that the CDC thinks effects 1 in three Americans. We are not eating the same wheat as our grandparents ate. It was modified by breeding back in the 60's and people have been getting fatter and fogger since then. So if you feel foggy, have memory problems, find thinking and concentration hard work, you have a lot of gas and have lost ambition, give going gluten free for a month a try.

Randolino, I would believe anything asbout health insurance. Do you know that they purchase information from those supermarket rewards cards to see what kinds of food you buy and if they contribute or have the likelyhood of generating health problems they can (and have) refuse and cover approve drugs or medical procedure as it was your own fault you were sick. They will use any reason they not to pay up. If you look like you have a degree and the ability to sue you get better coverage that some Jo Smo with a high school education.