I came across an article in WebMD about the father of a freelance journalist, Lisa Marshall. Her father had Alzheimer's disease, and she tells the story of his decline interwoven with insights on how to avoid or cope with the disease. She also highlights two specific areas of new hope.
Consistent with what we say in Beating the Dementia Monster, she has a lot to say about her father's lifestyle and how his eating, exercise, smoking, sleep, and other habits likely contributed to his development of Alzheimer's disease. These have become lessons learned in her family.
She also discusses Aduhelm, acknowledging its, so far, poor showing in clinical trials. But she also reports on the hope Aduhelm provides a possible step on the path to finding more effective drug treatments. And she discusses the significance of new blood tests which may show us that the disease mechanisms are in motion long before symptoms appear.
She writes about transcranial magnetic stimulation as a treatment. We wrote about this in January 2020. This has been approved by the FDA for treatment of depression, but it may also be effective against Alzheimer's disease.
While she had little to say that we haven't already covered in Beating the Dementia Monster and in this blog, what fascinated me was the story of her father. He was an accomplished physician with many deeply intellectual interests. Marshall uses these to underscore the terrible loss her family experienced in his decline over about 15 years.
The story is a reminder of the terrible cost of Alzheimer's disease, but also of the love within families that may be tested but is also a source of strength in confronting the disease. Of course, it also outlines what we can be doing to forestall its appearance or its advance.
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