Writer Greg O'Brien was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease five years ago. He describes what it was like to hear the news — and break it to his family.
As his disease advances, Greg O'Brien finds his personality shifting, too. "I know I can't go back to who I was before," he says. "I've got to learn to live with the new me."
Six years after he was diagnosed with both cancer and Alzheimer's, Greg O'Brien is beginning to talk to his doctor, and to his family, about his "exit strategy" for the final years of his life.
It's easy to spot what Alzheimer's patients have lost — memory, communication skills and more. But a study that sent medical students and dementia patients to art classes opened new vistas for all.
Fresh grilled swordfish now tastes like rolled newspapers to Greg O'Brien, an unexpected effect of his Alzheimer's. And shopping without a grocery list is futile. But summer barbecues are still sweet.
A very rare genetic mutation causes some people to develop Alzheimer's in their 30s. It also makes these people the ideal candidates for tests of potential Alzheimer's drugs.
By targeting the process that creates toxic clumps of protein in brain cells, scientists hope to help not just Alzheimer's patients, but perhaps also people with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's.
Things like activity trackers and sensors might make it easier to keep people with dementia safe and help caregivers. Researchers are going to test that idea in the real world.
Sometimes Greg O'Brien gets a tingling in the back of his brain that tells him a hallucination is coming. Lions. Spiders. Birds. Sometimes the creatures are friendly. Too often, they're not.