The Alzheimer's Progression

We discussed earlier that the term Alzheimer's disease is now applied to the entire progression of the disease, not just the Alzheimer's dementia stage.  This has caused confusion among some people I've spoken with because we have always thought of Alzheimer's disease as simply dementia.  But the disease may actually begin a decade or more before the first symptoms appear (we don't really know).  The first symptoms produce the condition we call MCI. 

Each case is different, but a person with AD will often be considered to be in the MCI stage for about five years.  This, of course, assumes there is no intervention.  We contend that lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and diet, will delay the progression to Alzheimer's dementia by as much as 10 years.  That's a long time.

(There are other diseases and issues that can produce MCI.  MCI identifies a broad category diseases and disorders; AD is just one.)

I have prepared this graphic to help explain the progress of AD.