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Hall and Ashford noted that early diagnosis has considerable potential benefits, including treatments and lifestyle choices, such as proper nutrition and mental stimulation, which can help delay progression of symptoms. In addition, it offers individuals the opportunity to do advance planning, address driving and other safety concerns, and participate in support groups and other programs while their intellectual abilities are more intact.

Also at the briefing today, the experts challenged Americans to consider their brain health, especially as they age.

"We should be forward thinking to see how to optimize our memory, and keep track of it and try to improve it, both as an early indicator of disease and to improve our success and enjoyment in the world," Ashford emphasized.

AFA has spearheaded advocacy efforts for the need for early detection, including the introduction of its annual National Memory Screening Day; strongly encouraging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to include language that now makes a review of a person's ability to perform activities of daily living--an evaluator of Alzheimer's disease--as a part of the "Welcome to Medicare" physical exam; and initiating successful resolutions in New York and California this year that declare November 13 as Memory Screening Day in each state.

In addition, AFA established its Memory Screening Advisory Board last year, bringing together the nation's leading experts to focus on this issue, as well as explore the most effective screening tools.

On AFA's 5th annual National Memory Screening Day on November 13 or another day during November, about 2,000 sites in 46 states will offer confidential memory screenings, education about Alzheimer's disease and successful aging, and access to local resources. Among them, all of Kmart's 1,100 pharmacies nationwide will be holding memory screenings, as well as other types of health screenings, as part of the chain's Gol
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