Bad Memory or early sign of Alzheimer's disease?

Sitting in the waiting room of a local cancer center this morning, I watched the faces of some of the elderly patients and their caregivers who were waiting to be seen by the doctors, when a story about testing for Alzheimer's disease came on the television. As the story progressed they talked about face recognition and lack of ability to put names to faces as one of the signs of early Alzheimers. I could see real concern on the faces of the folks watching the screen. I wanted to jump up and tell them not to worry because the story is probably bogus anyway.
If that's truly is the case, I don't have a snowball chance in hell of making it to the grave with my mind intact because I have never been able to remember names.

I know a guy who can remember the name of everyone he has ever met if only for a brief time yet he is one of those people who will embellish the details of a story every time. I have been with him as an incident occurs and later as he tells the story and adds details which have nothing to do with the actual event I sometimes wonder how he could get it so wrong. There have been times while listening to his account of a situation when I look at my brother who is looking at me because apparently the fellow saw something we did not see. Our minds have a way of  falsely filling in details which is why most "eyewitness" accounts are unreliable. Even if we have plenty of time to study a situation and absorb minute details we have a tendency to recall details different in most instances. 

So many people these days worry about getting "dementia" because it is publicized   much more than in the past. The era of 24 hour news cycles and talk shows do society a disservice in during their attempt to fill commercially driven airtime they touch on subjects which can not or should not be covered in 30 minutes or even an hour thus leaving their audience lacking crucial information and full of anxiety.