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Friday 19 August 2011

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease, a pre-senile dementia, was given its first full public clinical and pathological description, by a German neurologist Dr. Aloysius "Alois" Alzheimer (see below) on November 3, 1906, at the Tubingen meeting of the Southwest German Psychiatrists.


The symptoms of the disease were first identified by his colleague Emil Kraepelin on July 15, 1910 in his book Clinical Psychiatry, while Alzheimer observed its characteristic neuropathology. Because of the significance Kraepelin attached to finding the neuropathological basis of psychiatric ailments, Kraepelin granted Alzheimer the privilege of the disease bearing his name.

A German female named Auguste Deter was admitted to a mental institution, the Institution for the Mentally Ill and for Epileptics (Irrenschloss) in Frankfurt, Germany on November 25, 1901. There, she was examined by Dr. Alois Alzheimer and became the first woman diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. When examined by Alzheimer, Deter could not recite her own name. She instead would just repeat "I have lost myself" ("Ich hab mich verloren") .

Auguste Deter

In 1980, the movie star Rita Hayworth was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The public disclosure and discussion of her illness drew attention to Alzheimer's, which was largely unknown by most people at the time, and helped to increase public and private funding for Alzheimer's research.

US Grid Iron players are three to four times more likely to contract Alzheimer’s (among other things) as the average American.

On November 5, 1994, former President Ronald Reagan published a letter to the American people announcing his diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. It is not known how many of his infamous verbal mishaps when he was president were early signs of the condition.

Ronald Reagan, suffering from Alzheimer's, would clean his swimming pool for hours without knowing his agents were replenishing the leaves in the pool.

Despite being studied since its discovery in 1906, scientists have yet to rule out a germ origin for Alzheimer's disease. The infectious hypothesis could explain why neurosurgeons are twice and a half more likely to die from it than the general population.


10% of all people over the age of 60 have Alzheimer's disease, and as many as 50% of people over 85 have it. The number of people with the disease doubles every 5 years beyond age 65.

Alzheimer's can't be "officially" diagnosed until after death. They have to confirm diagnosis with autopsy, so until then essentially they say a person has "dementia." The proteins involved still can't be detected without the autopsy. Today new methods can diagnose it with a 90% accuracy rate though.

We know you can catch Alzheimer's disease, but only if the sick person's brain matter comes in contact with your brain matter.


Memories of music cannot be lost to Alzheimer's. The part of your brain responsible for ASMR catalogs music, and appears to be a stronghold against Alzheimer's.

"Terminal lucidity" is a phenomenon that has been reported in some patients who are near death and who have suffered from severe psychiatric or neurologic disorders, such Alzheimer's. It is characterized by a sudden improvement in mental clarity and memory, and it can be accompanied by an increase in alertness and ability to communicate. 

The phenomenon of terminal lucidity is not well understood and has not been extensively studied, so it is not known how common it is or what might cause it to occur. Some scientists believe that it may be related to changes in brain function that occur as the body is shutting down, while others think that it may be due to some other factor, such as a change in the levels of certain chemicals in the brain.

Humans are the only animals whose brains shrink and become subject to cognitive dysfunctions like Alzheimer’s disease. Not even close relatives like chimpanzees experience this shrinkage.

Here's a list of some songs about Alzheimer's disease.

1 comment:

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