Chapter 5 Summary

In previous chapters, Dr. Nuland has provided a great detail of information and medical etymology on the cause and affects of disease. As he explains, it is a necessary endeavor to properly diagnose and affect treatment. The purpose of the pathophysiologist is described as a physician who will investigate a disease by evaluating its origins and symptoms. It is in this, Dr. Nuland's chapter on Alzheimer's, that he explains the scourge that is this disease and the frustration of doctors and researchers alike in their inability to find its cause.

Since being properly identified in 1907, Alzheimer's is one of America's leading killers.

Being unable to relate the cause and effect of this disease, Dr. Nuland offers what is known and what can be predicted. Dr. Nuland relates the tale of Janet Whiting and her husband Phil. Phil Whiting will demonstrate the known symptoms...