From: gemini23x@gmail.com   
      
       
   Live Science   
   Health   
      
   Gene Wilder's Death: How Do People Die from Alzheimer's?   
   By Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer | August 29, 2016 05:25pm ET   
       
   Gene Wilder's Death: How Do People Die from Alzheimer's?   
      
   Gene Wilder at a Los Angeles book store in 2007.   
   Credit: s_bukley / Shutterstock.com   
   Legendary comedic actor Gene Wilder has died at age 83 from complications of   
   Alzheimer's disease, his family announced today. But what exactly does it mean   
   to die from Alzheimer's?   
      
   Although Alzheimer's disease shortens people's life spans, it is usually not   
   the direct cause of a person's death, according to the Alzheimer's Society, a   
   charity in the United Kingdom for people with dementia. Rather, people die   
   from complications from    
   the illness, such as infections or blood clots.   
      
   Advertisement   
      
   Alzheimer's is a progressive brain disease in which abnormal protein deposits   
   build up in the brain, causing brain cells to die. The illness is best known   
   for causing memory loss, but it also has other debilitating effects on the   
   body, and can affect    
   people's ability to move and eat by themselves. There is no cure for the   
   illness.   
      
   Alzheimer's patients may have difficulty swallowing, and they may inhale food,   
   which can result in aspiration pneumonia, Dr. Marc L. Gordon, chief of   
   neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, New York, who was not   
   involved in Wilder's care, told    
   Live Science in a 2014 interview. Pneumonia is listed as the cause of death in   
   as many as two-thirds of deaths of patients with dementia, according to the   
   Alzheimer's Society. [Top 10 Leading Causes of Death]   
      
   Alzheimer's patients may also become bedridden, which can increase their risk   
   of fatal blood clots, Gordon said.   
      
   Advertisement   
      
   Weight loss and other complications from Alzheimer's can also lead to a   
   weakened immune system, the Alzheimer's Society says. This increases a   
   person's susceptibility to potentially life-threatening infections, according   
   to the National Institute on    
   Aging.   
      
   These effects on the body are most pronounced in the advanced stage of the   
   disease, which lasts about 1.5 to 2 years, on average, according to the NIH.   
      
   Alzheimer's disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States,   
   according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2013, nearly   
   85,000 people in the United States died from the disease, the CDC says.   
      
   However, deaths from Alzheimer's disease may be underestimated, because death   
   certificates often list pneumonia or another complication as the cause of   
   death, rather than the underlying Alzheimer's, according to a 2014 study. The   
   study estimated that as    
   many as 500,000 people in the United States died from Alzheimer's in 2010.   
      
   Original article on Live Science.   
      
      
      
   http://www.livescience.com/55925-gene-wilder-alzheimers-death.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)