PBS Video on Alzheimer's Disease

The other day I watched a remarkable 53-minute video about three women confronting the possibility that they were developing Alzheimer's disease  -- Determined: Fighting Alzheimer's.  All were enrolled in a research project, the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention.  In each case, the fact that others in their families had previously been found to have dementia due to Alzheimer's had advanced their concerns.  The video follows each of them through a search to determine their future, including their tests and the impact of their anxiety on their families.  In one case, the story follows through to the very difficult death of the mother on one of the women.

You can see the video here.  

Several things resonated with me.  The video was copyrighted in 2021 and 2022, but much of it was shot in 2014 and 2015.  (I suspect some production delays due to covid.)  You will recall that I received my diagnosis of "MCI, likely due to Alzheimer's disease" in 2015.  One of the women auditions for a drug trial that I am sure was aducanumab (now marketed as Aduhelm), and she is rejected.  I, of course, had the same experience at about the same time.  

In the case of the woman who lost her mother, the video depicts in very stark terms the mother's struggle to live, fighting for each breath.  Her mother dies at the age of 74, having wasted away to 88 pounds.  If you read Beating the Dementia Monster, you know that in 2017 (when I was 67), a neuropsychologist indicated that I was on track to be dead when I am 75.  (I'll turn 73 in a couple of months.)  But the neuropsychologist also indicated that, if I stuck to my physical exercise and other lifestyle changes, I could extend that to age 85.  And this certainly seems to be what has been happening to me.  I infer from some of the dialog that the mother followed the course that I was taking before I began my lifestyle changes.

The video ends in a sort of crescendo of emphasis on how each of these women embarks on fighting the possibility of disease by getting to the gym and making other lifestyle changes.

I say the "possibility of disease," because at the end it wasn't clear that any of them actually had Alzheimer's disease.  One woman was pretty much cleared through a PET scan, but the others were still candidates.  While all had evidence of memory loss, none had advanced to dementia at the time the video was released.  It may be that the two who weren't cleared did have Alzheimer's disease but sustained their brain health through the lifestyle changes they made.  Their changes were depicted in the video. 

Every morning when I wake up and I recall how things were going for me in 2015, I am simply astounded -- and grateful.