I saw my friend at a luncheon in Winston-Salem the other day. He was there, but he wasn't there. He has Alzheimer's disease, like as many as 5 million other Americans.
His wife has told me about the heartache they've gone through over the last several years as his memory has faded. She's given me a small glimpse of a nightmare many of us will face, whether personally or through close friends or family.
We could use more education about this illness, which could severely strain the state before a cure is found. An HBO documentary series that premiered last week and will be repeated this afternoon, The Alzheimer's Project, is an intriguing crash course. It was produced by Maria Shriver, the journalist and wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She's also the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a sister of JFK, and Sargent Shriver, who helped establish the Peace Corps.
Sargent Shriver has Alzheimer's.
Cases like his, and that of the late President Reagan, have brought the long-misunderstood disease to the forefront. But the strength of Maria Shriver's series is that it drives home the terrible universality of Alzheimer's, whether you're living in Washington or Winston-Salem.
"You can see the anxiety in people's eyes after they have that diagnosis," said Richard Gottlieb, the head of Senior Services of Forsyth County. "Anyone can relate to that fear of not being centered and aware of all you used to be aware of. It's a horrible disease, both for the person who has it and for those who care for them."
Those first months of having
Alzheimer's must be the worst. The people who have it are aware of losing, as Maria Shriver puts it, the memories that make us. For those in the latter stages, the disease may be hardest on their friends and family. Besides the memory loss and confusion, there is irritability and aggression, language breakdown and withdrawal.
"In a lot of ways, I feel like I've already lost my mother," one woman says in the documentary. "She's there physically, but it's not the mother I've known all my life."
Other scenes are just as painful. An elderly man sits in a nursing home, trying to make conversation with the wife who no longer knows him. A 13-year-old girl worries about her grandmother. "It's like she's dead, kind of," the girl says. "She doesn't even know us."
A normally peaceful grandmother snaps at her granddaughter. That's the disease talking, Shriver tells the camera. "That's Alzheimer's doing its work."
Friends and family become the keepers of memories for those with Alzheimer's. They learn to live in the moment, cherishing things such as a brief flash of recognition across a loved one's face.
In the last segment of the series, doctors talk about advances in brain imaging that allow them to view living brains and study the disease. Stem-cell research could lead to breakthroughs in Alzheimer's treatment.
Progress is also being made in developing drugs to treat or even cure the disease. Such research is going on nationwide, including at Targacept, in Winston-Salem's Piedmont Triad Research Park.
But a cure may be a long way off. Meanwhile, programs such as the Elizabeth and Tab Williams Adult Day Center in Winston-Salem, run by Senior Services, are invaluable. They provide comfort to those who have Alzheimer's and respite for their loved ones.
Many rural areas of our region lack such programs, even as more people retire there. The aging baby- boomer generation is expected to produce millions more cases of Alzheimer's nationwide. We should support efforts to help those who have the disease, as well as efforts to find a cure for it.
One way or another, this illness will hit home for many of us.
■ John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at 727-7357 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com.
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