One of these days they shall stumble on the reason alzheimers is increasing. I have my own view that it's down to diet and lifestyle and that we shall never truly eliminate it since it has always existed.
Aging is one of the major factors for developing Alzheimer's. Since more people are living much longer, that really needs to be taken into consideration. Neither of my grandmothers lived to be 70 and neither had any developing dementia when they died. My grandfather had dementia but he had also had had a brain tumour and a severe head injury during World War II.
I agree that it has always existed - there are references in classical literature. I think something that gets overlooked is the sheer connectedness of the world today. So we are bombarded with far more stories and examples of AD than even only 20 years ago.
The media is also why we see the world as such a dangerous place, even though crime rates have been decreasing in North America over the last decades. I believe the reporting in the media has made us more aware, which is good, but it may also skew our perceptions of the rate of increase of dementia in general.
A simple example is how we don't notice X model of a car, until we buy one and then we see them everywhere. Perceptions can be tricky.
