Living with Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gradually worsens over time. It is the cause of 60-70% of cases of dementia. In most cases, remembering recent events is one of the earliest symptoms. A disease in the brain, the onset usually occurs in patients over the age of 65 but can occur earlier. Alzheimer’s is one of the most financially costly diseases.

Holidays can be meaningful, enriching times for both the person with Alzheimer’s disease and his or her family. Maintaining or adapting family rituals and traditions helps all family members feel a sense of belonging and family identity. For a person with Alzheimer’s, this link with a familiar past is reassuring.

David Nisbet’s father died of dementia this summer, and he wanted to do something to honor his dad and also help other families cope with the sadness of watching a loved one’s memory slip away.

Tau protein tangles (or neurofibrillary tangles) are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, but what role do they play? First, you need to understand how a disease like Alzheimer’s spread across the brain. Degenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other dementias are “prion-like,” meaning they happen because proteins in the brain misfold and change their structure. Once one protein misfolds, the same process can spread to other parts of the brain, causing many cells to misfold. That results in what we call tau tangles. 

When Tatiana Lagos’s father stopped driving, she didn’t think much of it at first.