Native Americans Swore By This Californian Herb, And Experts Say It May Help Treat Dementia Today

By 2050 the number of people living with Alzheimer’s in the United States could total 14 million. And with no cure in sight, that could result in a huge burden on our families and our nation. With that in mind, the focus is on ways to prevent the disease in the first place, and the answer may lie in a little-known plant.

Cases of Alzheimer’s are on the rise in America. In 2019, according to figures from the Alzheimer’s Association, there were 5.8 million people living with the disease across the United States. Of these, approximately 5.6 million were aged 65 and over, while an estimated 200,000 were under 65.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association statistics, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every 65 seconds in the U.S. But there are some groups that are more at risk than others. While age increases the chances of a person developing the disease, it appears to affect women more than men. Furthermore, older people of African-American or Hispanic heritage are more likely to have Alzheimer’s than their white counterparts.

With our aging population, it is likely that cases of Alzheimer’s will continue to increase rapidly in the U.S. By 2015 it’s estimated that there could be 13.8 million cases of the disease in people aged 65 and above, at an approximated cost of $1.1 trillion to the nation. As a result, it’s important that we learn as much as we can about Alzheimer’s and how we might stem its growth.

So what exactly is Alzheimer’s? Put simply, it is the most prevalent form of dementia and a form of degenerative brain disease. One of the first symptoms of the illness is memory loss, though others can include disorientation, language problems and behavioral issues, which often get worse as Alzheimer’s progresses.