Few diagnoses strike as much dismay in patients and their families as Alzheimer’s disease. Although it doesn’t properly belong in the category of “dread diseases”, since it doesn’t have the often rapid deleterious effect in individuals as, say, cancer, a heart attack (or, for that matter, COVID-19), and doesn’t involve the distressing experiences of intensive-care wards, oncological treatment or life-support apparatus, it’s automatically associated by many with the irrevocable decline of memory - and all that memory embodies: relationships, cognitive ability, awareness, dignity and, eventually, identity.
Yet, this is no longer the case. Over the past decades, research into the condition has shown that it’s largely preventable, with lifestyle modifications, and that not only can treatment significantly slow down the rate of cognitive decline in patients, but sometimes it can arrest it altogether, or even reverse it enough to restore meaningful quality of life. There is plenty of hope and plenty of help available.
If you’re reading this because you or a loved one has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
