Even 20-year-olds forget the simplest things Are you over 60 and alarmed as you find yourself forgetting things? I drove down the street yesterday and for a flashing moment, I completely forgot why I was on that street. I was going to the bank, of course, and I remembered as soon...
Eight out of every ten of us will have some form of dementia before we die. Here’s another stat that most of us likely don’t know. Two-thirds of the 5.8 million people in the U.S. who have Alzheimer's disease are women. By 2050, that number will zoom to nearly 14 million—and...
In a New York Times story, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s husband, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, has a romance with another woman, and the former Justice is thrilled. She visits with the new couple while they hold hands on the porch swing. It’s a relief to see her husband of...
T.J. Abraham is a big guy who played football throughout high school and college. An offensive linebacker, he loved the tough-man fraternity of the team, the getting hit, clanking helmets, getting back up. He saw stars, he threw up, but he got back back in it. “I probably got my...
Many of us are caring for--or know someone who is caring for--a family member, often an aging parent. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 70 every day, caring for this demographic is a growing health care matter, and it’s only time before it becomes a political issue. Let’s take a look...
Juli Engel was delighted when a neurologist recommended a PET scan to determine whether amyloid — the protein clumps associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease — was accumulating in her mother’s brain. Her mother, Sue Engel, is 83 and lives in a retirement community in Florida. She’s been experiencing...
While Marilyn Friedman had always dreamed that one day she and her mother would have a closer relationship, it was not to be. Her mother had dementia. She forgot the word for “dog.” She got lost on the way home from the grocery store. She experienced hallucinations of flashing lights...
Laurie Scherrer, 55, a hardworking sales executive, found herself forgetting customers and unable to perform simple math calculations. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, which causes deterioration in behavior and ability to understand language. Ms. Scherrer gave herself some time to feel sorry for herself, then took...
Eileen Kobrin was 71, lived in New York City and led a busy, active life, but like many seniors who live alone, she worried that an accident would compromise one of the things she valued most--her independence. Two years ago, while on vacation, Eileen tripped and fell, breaking her ankle...
In 2016 The New York Times devoted a special section to Alzheimer’s. It was a beautifully written story, Fraying at the Edges, by N.R. Kleinfield, that focused on Geri Taylor’s heroic journey with the disease. Ms. Taylor had become forgetful; mundane tasks often confused her. One day she got off the subway and...
Dee Hill begged the 911 dispatcher for help. “My husband accidentally shot me in the stomach". A few feet away, her 76-year old husband, Darrell, a former police chief and county sheriff, sat in his wheelchair with a discharged Glock on the table in front of him, completely unaware that...
Dr. Barak Gaster is a Seattle internist who spent three years working with specialists in geriatrics, neurology, palliative care and psychiatry to create a dementia-specific advance directive. The document maps out the stages of dementia: mild, moderate and severe; it asks patients to specify which medical interventions they would want...
