Living with Alzheimer's

Living with Alzheimer’s


Mary Blake Carver, an average New Yorker, is one of the five million people in the United States suffering with Alzheimer’s disease. She is only fifty five. Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects short term memory, allows organizational skills to fail, and shortens the attention span. Ms. Carver has been fired from her job, annihilated from conversation by her husband, and is left feeling alone and dull.
About half of the people suffering with Alzheimer’s are in the early stages, where they still can function in “normal”, every-day life. Many of these people have begun to speak out about their experience with the disease. Across the nation there has been a growing want for victims of Alzheimer’s to speak national conventions. Also many support groups have been begun to help not only those directly suffering with the disease, but also to help spouses and family members of people with Alzheimer’s.
“Progressive mental deterioration in old age has been recognized and described throughout history. However, in was not until the early part of the 20th century that a collection of brain cell abnormalities were specifically identified by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German physician, in 1906. He lectured about a woman who had died after years of experiencing severe memory problems, confusion, and difficulty understanding questions. Upon her death, he performed an autopsy on her brain and described dense deposits outside and around the nerve cells. Inside the nerve cells he noted the presence of twisted bands of fibers.” (2)







http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/health/29alzheimers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.ahaf.org/alzdis/about/adhistory.htm