Category Archives: Human interest

A new study says Alzheimer’s treatments don’t work. My life says otherwise.

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I was one of the participants in a clinical trial that led to the approval of new Alzheimer’s treatments in 2024.

This treatment improved my memory and mental sharpness, giving me more good years with the people I love: my husband Brent, my six children, 22 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

I’m grateful that my grandchildren get to know me not as an Alzheimer’s patient, but just as a grandmother who is capable of talking to them, teaching recipes and making memories.

That’s why I was saddened to see a new review claiming that the medicines have little benefit. It contradicted the reality that I lived and felt like an attempt to stamp out hope for the thousands of patients receiving Alzheimer’s diagnoses today.

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Study sheds new light on impact of Alzheimer’s screening for caregivers and family members

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A new study conducted by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers has found that primary care screenings for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in older adults did not cause psychological distress for the patient’s family members, nor did it better prepare those loved ones for caregiving.

The randomized clinical trial, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, is the first study to examine the longer-term benefits, risks and harms of ADRD screening in primary care for family members most likely to assume caregiving responsibilities. It examined 1,808 patient-family member pairs across 29 Indiana clinics. Each patient was at least 65 years old.

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I was a doctor caring for Alzheimer’s patients. At 57, I became one. Here’s what’s next

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As an internal medicine doctor, I used to care for Alzheimer’s patients. Now, at just 60 years old, I am one. My diagnosis is not the future most people hope for — but there is finally a generation of Alzheimer’s treatments that work for many patients, and I am one of them.

Before my diagnosis, I was a busy, high-performing physician and a present husband and father. Over my career, I completed an internal medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins, oversaw a medical practice and ran an academic clinic where I taught residents and medical students. I coached my kids’ basketball teams and served as a deacon at my church.

I was someone who helped others, not someone who needed help myself. Then, three years ago, everything changed.

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The former Chancellor of the University of Denver was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Then, she wasn’t

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Rebecca Chopp was determined to make the best of her diagnosis. It was 2019, and neurologists had just confirmed that the University of Denver chancellor had Mild Cognitive Impairment or MCI due to Alzheimer’s disease. Chopp, who didn’t want to risk letting her condition affect work, stepped down from her job.

“It’s a big job, and what if I made a mistake?” Chopp recalls thinking. “Plus, whatever time I had left, I wanted to be with my husband and friends and do things I hadn’t done.”

Questions about Chopp’s cognitive health first surfaced when she got lost driving to a regular checkup with her doctor. At the appointment, she told the doctor about it. Chopp also mentioned that she was sleeping more than usual, after years of not needing much sleep. The doctor recommended Chopp undergo some cognitive testing. 

“I was so arrogant. I laughed at her and said, ‘Sure, because I’d never failed a test in my life,'” she recalls. “So I took it, and I didn’t pass.”

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Alzheimer’s at 19? Doctors report the youngest case ever seen — and it’s raising big questions

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In January 2023, neurologists at Beijing’s Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University published a case study that briefly unsettled everything the field thought it knew about Alzheimer’s disease. Two years later, as new treatments and updated diagnostic criteria reshape how the disease is understood, the questions it raised are still unanswered.

He started forgetting things when he was 17. He couldn’t recall what had happened the day before, couldn’t follow what he’d just read, struggled to retain anything new. By 19, the decline had progressed enough that he withdrew from high school. He could still live independently, but something was clearly wrong.

Read the full article HERE