Until recently, many of these afflictions remained a mystery to modern science. The University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank is advancing knowledge of the brain by providing both healthy and diseased brain tissue to researchers engaged in a variety of basic and clinical research projects. The gradual and debilitating loss of memory that characterizes this disease affects an estimated 10 percent of our population over the age of 65. It typically strikes in the seventh or eighth decade of life, but can also occur in middle age. By the middle of the next century some 14 million Americans could be afflicted.
Researchers believe they have found a genetic link to the disease.
Drug compounds, now undergoing testing, are aimed at delaying the onset of the disease's symptoms. An estimated 400,000 Americans suffer from this neurodegenerative disease, which most often afflicts people in late middle age. Symptoms include uncontrollable tremors, rigidity of the limbs, and slowed movement. Researchers believe that the use of amphetamines and cocaine may be a risk factor. Environmental toxins also may be a cause, but much remains unknown.