USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A May 21, 2019 Shifting Margins blog post by Bishop Kenneth L. Carder wrote about an experience of his wife Linda, who has FTD, and the ability of people with dementia to bestow compassion and care on others. As a neighbor, Dale, who has middle-stage Alzheimer’s, comforted Linda, Carder reflected, “I don’t know what either Dale or Linda were thinking. But in that fleeting moment, there was a tender connection, a simple affirmation, an experience of solidarity, a shared compassion. Dale’s embedded pastoral sensitivities and practices remain. He greets almost everyone with a smile and “Hey! Hey! Hey!” and “You’re good!” Yes, people with dementia have gifts! They are more than objects of ministry! They minister!” Carder is a member of ClergyAgainstAlzheimer’s, a UsA2 network, and contributed an article to the upcoming, “Dementia-friendly Worship: A Multifaith Handbook for Chaplains, Clergy and Faith Communities.” Pre-order here.

MUST READS

A May 21, 2019 Medical News Today article spotlighted a new study from Johns Hopkins tracking ever more precise “changepoints” (biochemical and anatomic) in the evolution of Alzheimer's disease biomarkers. Researchers found signs of cognitive impairment 11–15 years before the onset of symptoms, and detected higher levels of tau as early as 34 years prior. According to study co-author Michael I. Miller, PhD, “Several biochemical and anatomic measures can be seen changing up to a decade or more before the onset of clinical symptoms. The goal is to find the right combination of markers that indicate increased risk for cognitive impairment and to use that tool to guide eventual interventions to help stave it off.”

A May 21, 2019 CNBC article featured speakers at the recent CNBC Healthy Returns conference talking about the risky nature of investing in Alzheimer’s disease drugs. “One of the things we look for when we make investments, we talked earlier about binary risk, is when developing a new therapeutic, you have to understand what the disease is doing. You have to understand what you need in it to affect the disease process, and then you have to have the capability to actually make that molecule or that cell or that gene. [With Alzheimer’s] We don’t even really know the very first layer, so the probability that you’re going to find the right target and hit it is going to be unlikely…” said Andreessen Horowitz of biotech Jorge Conde.

DISPARITIES SPOTLIGHT

A May 21, 2019 Forbes article spoke with Michael W. Weiner, MD, principle investigator for both Brain Health Registry (BHR) and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), about getting people involved in clinical research. According to Weiner, “I have been doing Alzheimer’s research for 25 years. The overall goal of our field is to identify people at risk of developing Mild Cognitive Impairment and dementia and to help develop treatments to prevent them. But one reason the research is going slow is that we are not getting enough volunteers for research studies… We want African American, Spanish and Asian people. We want blue collar, white collar, working people, high school graduates, college graduates and those with advance degrees. We want our registry to look like America.”

CAREGIVING CORNER

A The Dawn Method blog post looked at mistaken identities and dementia. There are a number of reasons that people with dementia can “forget” even their closest family members. Memory is an issue, but dementia also affects the part of the brain that enables recognition of features and familiarity in human faces. According to the post, “The most important thing is to avoid reacting with concern or hurt. The inability to recognize loved ones is part of experiencing dementia. Grieve in private, but respond to your loved one with calm acceptance or redirection… If redirection doesn’t work, just accept the mistaken identity.”