3 ms·

I really can't wait for the follow up investigations of these studies. Alzheimer's is one of the worst diseases out there that will likely affect most of us in

I really can't wait for the follow up investigations of these studies. Alzheimer's is one of the worst diseases out there that will likely affect most of us in some way in our lives, but yet it seems less talked about versus say cancer and heart disease. I still think mental illness carries a lot of stigma, and isn't talked about as openly. It's getting better though, and studies like this make me excited that perhaps a cure or significant treatment is possible in our lifetimes.

sbarre 11y ago
What makes Alzheimer's so awful is the slow pace at which it takes away the people you love. You see them slowly disappear while still being physically there, over the course of years, and there's nothing you can do. I lost my grandmother to it, and it was an incredibly, and increasingly, painful 5 years for the entire family, to the point where we felt relief more than grief when she finally passed. I can only hope they find a cure or a treatment.
- sokoloff 11y ago
  Very similar experience with my grandfather who passed this summer. It's hard to pinpoint which stage of the disease is "the worst". Is it the very early onset where the patient is still largely "there" but knows of the inevitable decline, the middle stages where your function is so degraded that you can't live fully alone, but you recall what it was like just a few years ago to be able to live at home and you have no particular physical infirmity to suggest that assisted living is right, or the end stage where you can only recognize a few people and display significant concern/fear/mistrust of the nursing staff who are doing their damnedest to help you? Each stage is terrible in its own right, and the disease progression proved to me that there are indeed medical fates far, far worse than death.
Omniusaspirer 11y ago
Studies have long shown a link between depression and AD, and some of the newest (last couple years) seem to be showing that depression may actually be causing and accelerating AD as opposed to just being a comorbidity. In the same vein we have IBS, a condition which can sometimes be treated with antidepressants. Fascinating stuff.

sbarre 11y ago

What makes Alzheimer's so awful is the slow pace at which it takes away the people you love. You see them slowly disappear while still being physically there, over the course of years, and there's nothing you can do. I lost my grandmother to it, and it was an incredibly, and increasingly, painful 5 years for the entire family, to the point where we felt relief more than grief when she finally passed. I can only hope they find a cure or a treatment.

sokoloff 11y ago
Very similar experience with my grandfather who passed this summer. It's hard to pinpoint which stage of the disease is "the worst". Is it the very early onset where the patient is still largely "there" but knows of the inevitable decline, the middle stages where your function is so degraded that you can't live fully alone, but you recall what it was like just a few years ago to be able to live at home and you have no particular physical infirmity to suggest that assisted living is right, or the end stage where you can only recognize a few people and display significant concern/fear/mistrust of the nursing staff who are doing their damnedest to help you? Each stage is terrible in its own right, and the disease progression proved to me that there are indeed medical fates far, far worse than death.

Omniusaspirer 11y ago

Studies have long shown a link between depression and AD, and some of the newest (last couple years) seem to be showing that depression may actually be causing and accelerating AD as opposed to just being a comorbidity. In the same vein we have IBS, a condition which can sometimes be treated with antidepressants. Fascinating stuff.