Remembering a “forgotten man who described a disease of forgetting”

Stateside's conversation with University of Michigan medical historian and PBS contributor Dr. Howard Markel.

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More than five million Americans are living right now with Alzheimer's Disease. The number could be as high as 16 million by the middle of the century.

We're familiar with this devastating brain disease, but few remember the man who identified it and gave it his name.

University of Michigan medical historian and PBS contributor Dr. Howard Markeljoined Stateside today. 

“We’re remembering a forgotten man who described a disease of forgetting,” Markel said.

That man's name was Alois Alzheimer and this week marks his 153rd birthday.

Listen above.

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