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mnottertail -> RE: Scarborough: Is Bush an idiot? (8/16/2006 12:47:17 PM)
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here is a chunk from washington post......there are more and better, but I havent the energy.........
Monday, June 7, 2 p.m. ET
Reagan and Alzheimer's Disease
Reagan and Alzheimer's
David Shenk
Author
Monday, June 7, 2004; 2:00 PM
Former president Ronald Reagan, 93, died at his home in California on Saturday. After leaving office, he announced his condition of Alzheimer's disease in a letter expressing his gratitude of service to the American people. About five million Americans are afflicted with the disease and there is no known cure.
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David Shenk, author of "The Forgetting: Alzheimer's - Portrait of an Epidemic," was online Monday, June 7 at 2 p.m. ET to talk about the disease that President Reagan battled for the last 10 years of his life.
Shenk was previously online to discuss the PBS documentary, 'The Forgetting': A Portrait of Alzheimer's,' based on his book. Prior to 'The Forgetting,' Shenk wrote 'Data Smog' and has also written for Harper's, Wired, Salon, The New Republic, The Washington Post and The New Yorker and is an occasional commentator for NPR's All Things Considered.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
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David Shenk: Hello. Thanks to washingtonpost.com for having me back on this sad occasion. As the author of the The Forgetting, I've obviously been following Reagan's illness very closely. Sad to say, he seem to have a classic experience with the disease, experiencing annoying but minor memory issues in the late 80s and early 90s, and then having more and more trouble with memoory and disorientation as the years went on. He was diagnosed in 1994, and did the whole world an enormous service by going public with his diagnosis. There are two monumental challenges in the Alzheimer's world right now: to cure it of course, and also to help the public understand it so we can break through the taboo and improve care. Nancy and Ronald Reagan faced squarely up to both challenges, and we owe them both a lot for that.
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Arlington, Va.: How is Alzheimer's Disease different from the "ordinary" (but sometimes severe) dementia that often occurs in old age?
David Shenk: Great question. In today's terminology, we no longer consider any dementia as ordinary. Dementia is the general category, and we know that dementia is always caused by a particular disease. Alzheimer's happens to be by far the leading cause of dementia.
But there is no such thing as "garden-variety dementia." It's always caused by something, and it's important to diagnose what's causing it.
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Wallace, N.C.: Do you think that Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer's during his term as president?
David Shenk: Everyone wants to know that about Reagan, understandably. The short answer is no -- he did not have diagnosable Alzheimer's in the White House.
Alzheimer's is a progressive disease that creeps up very very slowly, and it was certainly creeping up on him during the late years of his Presidency. He knew that better than anyone, and joked frequently in speeches and with his White House doctors. But it's clear from looking at the evidence that his memory troubles in the White House were much too slight to be considered Alzheimer's.
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