CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reaches into his mailbag and answers your questions.
Question
A lifelong friend of mine, a “young” 58-year-old, has just been diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia. She was told she’s had it for 20 years, but there have been no noticeable symptoms until the last two years. Can you please shed some light on this disease?
Answer
Thank you, Kathy, for sharing you friend’s story and for the question. While there are many potential causes of dementia, Alzheimer’s is something that often springs to mind. It is often thought of as an older person’s disease, but it can occur in people that are relatively young, like your friend was. Having never seen your friend or examined her, let me instead talk a little about Alzheimer’s. It is a tough thing to understand because we don’t quite know what causes it, or how to cure it.