More than 5 million people in the United States suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and the majority of them are age 65 or older, according to the Alzheimer's Association. However, some 200,000 of them are younger than that, suffering from early onset Alzheimer's.
While the symptoms of early onset Alzheimer's are the same as other instances of the disease, the way it affects the lives of patients and their loved ones is not. As opposed to older patients, early onset patients might still be working or raising children.
Ann Marie McDonald from the Houston and Southeast Texas Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association joins Houston Matters to talk about the unique challenges of facing early onset Alzheimer's.