clipped from www.baltimoresun.com

"We're seeing more and more people in their 40s and especially in their 50s and early 60s with more serious memory problems than we've seen before. And many of them turn out to be Alzheimer's," said Dr. Constantine G. Lyketsos, chair of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

He doesn't know why he is seeing more younger patients - it could be because baby boomers are pushing through this age group or there is a greater awareness of the disease. There aren't hard numbers, in part because Alzheimer's is notoriously difficult to identify, particularly in the middle-aged.

"I've heard it said that Alzheimer's kills the brain of the patient and the heart of the family," said Carol Wynne, a nurse practitioner who runs an Alzheimer's Association support group for families dealing with early-onset disease. "It's very hard to watch - and as a society, we aren't set up to deal with them."