Alzheimer's Disease. A mind is a terrible thing to lose.

I had planned on doing my first blog post on type one diabetes.  For those of you who know me, this would have been a fairly easy subject for me as both my mother and I have type one diabetes.  However, earlier tonight I saw something that made me rethink my entire posting.  My grandfather was attempting to play lumosity on his new Ipad and couldn't recognize that a word saying a color was different from another word written in a different color (one of the basic games of the app) at the same time my grandfather excelled at the games which required spatial reasoning and perception.  This loss of the ability to differentiate colors and words was particularly disturbing to me as I have always known my grandfather to be one of the most intelligent individuals I have ever met, he was actually a rocket scientist during the cold war.  Despite this burning intelligence his mental faculties have begun to slip and recently he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Dimentia.

This Disease has to do with the accumulation of tau proteins within the brain.  These protein aggregates form neurotoxic plaques which slowly but steadily destroy neurons, and cause neurochemical deficiencies.  The macroscopic symptoms of this disease begins with progressive short term memory loss, increasingly severe dementia, long term memory loss, and finally death.  Recently the Nobel prize in medicine/physiology went to several scientists who have worked on analyzing vesicular transport and their work does show promise for furthering the understanding of this disease. Sadly, though this disease is progressive in nature and while there are many theories and treatments that promise to slow its progression there is no known cure.

I watched this disease claim my otherwise vibrant grandmother several years ago and turn her into a completely different person, one who didn't even recognize her husband of 70 years. Losing your memories and personality is a horrifying and traumatic experience to watch.  As far as I'm concerned this disease is almost a fate worse than death and I strongly believe that significant research needs to be done in treatment options.  Sadly, I can't find much in the way of current research, neuroelectrical stimulation, potential gene therapy targets in the ApoE gene, and stem cell research, none of which seem to be anywhere near ready for clinical trials.  I hope when you read this you consider the horror you would face if you knew that you were going to cease to be yourself.  I hope that even if you can't do any research yourself you may take the time and learn and potentially do what you can.  I'm going to be working with my grandfather.

Cummings JL, Vinters HV, Cole GM, Khachaturian ZS. 1998 July, Alzheimer's disease: etiologies, pathophysiology, cognitive reserve, and treatment opportunites. Neurology 51(1 suppl 1): p.S2-17,S65-70.