'When people talk to me about growing older, they tell me that one of their greatest fears is that they will become forgetful. They fear that memory loss is the first sign of Alzheimer's disease and that it signals an inevitable mental and physical decline. For as long as I can remember, and for long before that, traditional medicine practitioners have told us that memory loss and confusion are simply normal parts of growing older. They implied that we should simply accept such changes in our mental capacities as an inevitable part of the aging process.
But I have known, and now modern medicine is beginning to admit, that remaining alert and able as we age can be the norm, rather than the exception. Many people experience memory lapses. Some are serious and others are not. People who have serious changes in their memory, personality, and behavior may suffer from dementia.'
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