FDA Approves Amyvid for Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

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Amyvid is a radiopharmaceutical developed by the Eli Lilly Company to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease by causing previously invisible beta amyloid plaque deposits in the brain to show up in PET scans. The FDA has recently approved Amyvid for clinical use although its use remains somewhat controversial.

Dr. Alois Alzheimer’s discovery of the physical changes in the brain in the early 1900s has caused researchers to focus on the plaque deposits he found in autopsied brains of diseased patients.  If the plaque causes the disease, discovering the plaque before a patient’s symptoms worsen could mean closing in on a cure.

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New Alzheimer’s Caregiver Website by MindStart Keeps Minds Active

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The http://www.mind-start.com website for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and their caregivers, is the only one of its kind, providing both products for dementia care and educational content and support. The focus of the website is to keep people with dementia active by offering tools and resources to caregivers, both family and professional.

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When Your Mom Forgets Who You Are

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I’ll never forget the moment when I realized my mother no longer knew who I was. For every child of a parent with Alzheimer’s, that reality is a devastating one. How could she not recognize me? Her smile was friendly, but her eyes seemed vacant. She appeared confused. She seemed to be asking: Who is this stranger sitting beside me?

I thought of my mother as I watched 59-year-old Tennessee Volunteers coach Pat Summitt announce that she was resigning. For nearly four decades, she had coached the women’s basketball team she loved. The AP reported she was suffering from early-onset dementia. It had reportedly been causing her memory problems. As I watched Coach Summitt courageously announce that “the time has come to step into a new role,” I couldn’t stop thinking of the lost look in my mother’s eyes.

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How to Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease

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Charles Snelling spent six years taking care of his Alzheimer’s-stricken wife, Adrienne, helpless as he watched the disease steal his college sweetheart. In March, after six decades of marriage, Snelling killed his longtime partner, and then he killed himself. Both were 81. “After apparently reaching the point where he could no longer bear to see the love of his life deteriorate further, our father ended our mother’s life and then took his own life as well,” his children said in a statement. “This is a total shock to everyone in the family, but we know he acted out of deep devotion and profound love.”

Indeed, Alzheimer’s disease unleashes a devastating, sometimes unmanageable burden. It is a leading cause of disability and death, with numbers poised to explode in coming years as the older population grows. (Symptoms typically first appear after age 60.) By 2050, an estimated 16 million people will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia, and roughly 5.4 million Americans are currently living with the condition, according to a March report by the Alzheimer’s Association, a nonprofit advocacy group. One person develops Alzheimer’s every second. It’s the 6th leading cause of death in the United States, and the 5th for those age 65 and older. And there’s no cure. “We should be very worried,” says Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

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The Faces of Alzheimer’s

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The prevailing view of people with Alzheimer’s is often a depressing one: the patient slumped in a chair or parked in front of a television set. But a new book and photo exhibition this month in New York show another side of the disease, one in which people with dementia can still be engaged, lead active lives and experience love and joy.

The book, “Love, Loss and Laughter: Seeing Alzheimer’s Differently,” was written by Cathy Greenblat, a professor emerita of sociology at Rutgers University who found a second career as a photographer. The exhibition has toured the world and is currently on display at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University in Manhattan.

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