I'm not sure I have anything meaningful to say about Alzheimer's Disease, but I've been helping a friend compile a book about her husband's struggle with this disease, and so I stopped to read your post. Alzheimer's is, in more than one sense, a family disease. Not only is there a genetic link (in the case of my friend's husband, his mother died from the disease), but the whole family is usually involved in care and treatment of the patient. We need education on how to care for loved ones if they are afflicted, and we need to understand how we might prepare ourselves if we get this diagnosis. More than that, we need effective treatment. Right now, medicine, as your post indicates, does not offer much of a reprieve.