Description
Book SynopsisHave the social safety nets, environmental protections, and policies to redress wealth and income inequality enacted after World War II contributed to declining rates of dementia todayand how do we improve brain health in the future?Winner of the American Book Fest Health: Aging/50+ by the American Book Fest, Living Now Book Award: Mature Living/Aging by the Living Now Book AwardsFor decades, researchers have chased a pharmaceutical cure for memory loss. But despite the fact that no disease-modifying biotech treatments have emerged, new research suggests that dementia rates have actually declined in the United States and Western Europe over the last decade. Why is this happening? And what does it mean for brain health in the future?In American Dementia, Daniel R. George, PhD, MSc, and Peter J. Whitehouse, MD, PhD, argue that the current decline of dementia may be strongly linked to midtwentieth century policies that reduced inequality, provided widespread access to education and health
Trade ReviewGeorge and Whitehouse had me turning each page with wonder over topics I
know well, to which their insight brought newperspective . . . [
American Dementia] will enlighten a lay public, and experts in Alzheimer's disease, new and old.
—George Perry, PhD,
Journal of Alzheimer's DiseaseTable of ContentsPreface
Chapter 1. Occupy Alzheimer's! Setting the Scene for Resistance
Chapter 2. Alzheimer's and the Neoliberal Turn: "Politics of Anguish," Visions of a Cure
Chapter 3. Alzheimer's Today: Inconvenient Truths in the Marketplace of Memory
Chapter 4. Treating Populations: Collectively Strengthening the Brain Health of the Many, Not the Few
Chapter 5. Flint Still Doesn't Have Clean Water: What the Lead-Poisoning Tragedy in Michigan Means for Alzheimer's
Chapter 6. #PoorLivesMatter: Fighting Poverty to Resist Alzheimer's
Chapter 7. Turning Up the Heat on Global Warming: The Neurologic Costs of Climate Change
Chapter 8. Occupy the Nursing Home! Breaking Down Walls and Breaking Out "Socialceuticals"
Chapter 9. A Bridge beyond Loneliness: The Gathering Momentum of Age- and Dementia-Friendly Communities
Chapter 10. The Intergenerational Schools: Desegregating and Revaluing the Cognitively Frail
Acknowledgments
Appendix: An Intergenerational Interview with the Authors
Notes
Index
