“
Since 2007, Alzheimer’s has been the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and for people eighty and over, it’s now in fifth place for men, third for women. But even that isn’t quite right. For the most part, the causes of death that have led the CDC listings for the last century are broad categories of disorders such as “diseases of the heart,” “malignant neoplasms,” and “accidents” (unintentional injuries). As a result, many diseases fall under each heading, and the numbers of deaths counted are high. If we list heart attacks, heart failure, arrhythmias, and other cardiac conditions separately but cancer as a single entity, for example, heart diseases would not top the list; cancer would. But cancer would also drop lower down the list if we separated out the different types—listing breast, lung, skin, prostate, colon, blood, and each of the many others individually. Yet the CDC considers Alzheimer’s a separate disease on its own, rather than grouping the many dementias together. A more taxonomically consistent approach would be to have a dementia category that included vascular, Lewy body, frontotemporal, and all the other dementias. This matters because where a condition appears on this and other lists affects all aspects of medicine—from doctor training to money for research and departments within health systems, as well as the public’s imagination and our political and social priorities.
”
”
Louise Aronson (Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life)