USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A February 10, 2015 Everyday Health article by ActivistsAgainstAlzheimer's advocate Michael Ellenbogen highlighted his battle with Alzheimer's disease. According to Ellenbogen, "Alzheimer’s disease sucks in so many ways. I don’t have a clear vision of things in my mind, just minute spots of memories. And I do mean spots. I need to be able to magnify the spot in order to make sense of it but I am no longer able to do that. I no longer have groups of thoughts that I can make sense of. Instead I have flashes of memories, which may be completely irrelevant to what is going on at that moment.The only way I can describe it is the way a film works. To make a complete film you need hundreds of still shots per second to build up the picture on screen. Every once in a while I may have one still shot that lacks clarity and meaning before having it fade to nothing in a matter of seconds. So before you think the person with dementia is going crazy, you should probably ask yourself if you or someone else moved the missing item or got rid of it. There is something positive to be taken from a situation such as this: At least the person with dementia is still capable of thought, no matter how fragmented."

MUST READS & WATCH 

A February 10, 2015 PBS NewsHour article and broadcast segment highlighted issues associated with early onset Alzheimer's and featured Still Alice author Lisa Genova. According to Genova, "I think this is such a hard thing to face. Internally, you know what’s going on better than anyone else. I know that my grandmother probably knew that she had Alzheimer’s before we did. She was just… she wasn’t a complainer. And she was tough and very intellectually agile. So she moved around her symptoms in very sort of creative ways for a long time. I think people surrounding someone with Alzheimer’s, the people I’ve seen and had experience with, don’t push the process forward. They’re happier to retreat and be in denial or look the other way. No one wants this to happen to anyone that they love."

A February 10, 2015 The Sacramento Bee article reported on the impact of Alzheimer's and dementia on married couples and spouse caregivers. According to the article, "“Caregiver spouses are, in effect, married widows and widowers. With the number of people suffering from dementia rising as baby boomers age, healthy couples must plan for when one of them will not recognize the other…In the context of dementia, faithful and married may not be synonymous, according to Barbara Gillogly of Citrus Heights, a gerontologist and family therapist with 35 years of experience working with people suffering from dementia and their families. “The well spouse has a responsibility for the safety and care of the spouse suffering from dementia but may feel released from the wedding vows the ill spouse can no longer fulfill,” she says. “The well person still is whole and needs to know it can be OK to form new relationships.””

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A February 10, 2015 WCVB.com article highlighted promising Alzheimer's research from the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center and Boston Medical Center. According to the article, "No new drugs for treatment have been approved by the FDA since 2003, but that could change with research that is underway in Boston.The Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center and Boston Medical Center are taking part in several trials and studies, including one that brings significant hope. The Noble Study will test the effects of a drug known as T-817MA.Currently, only five drugs are approved to treat Alzheimer's disease. Those drugs are aimed at slowing down early symptoms in a small number of people. T-817MA targets people who are already experiencing a degree of dementia, and it could potentially alter the course of Alzheimer's disease. "In my mind, right now, in all the studies that are going on, this is one of the most, if not the most promising approach to try to slow down the disease in someone who is already at the point of having moderate stages of dementia," said Dr. Robert Stern, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center.Stern said that T-817MA could also go a step further and protect brain cells from destruction of Alzheimer's disease, which leads to dementia."