Not long ago, McLean's magazine did a piece on clues to Alzheimer's. Some researchers, apparently, are examining Agatha Christie whodunits to discover if there were early warning signs of dementia in her work. Agatha Christie wrote from her late twenties to early eighties. While it is not conclusive that Agatha had Alzheimer's or any other dementia, apparently her later books, like Iris Murdoch's (who did have Alzheimer's) were meandering and fuzzy. One of the telltale signs of approaching dementia is the inability to extract from memory specific names. People who are eventually diagnosed with dementia increasingly use indefinite nouns like 'it' and 'thing'. With failing memory, the vocabulary declines.



With this in mind, I have been trying for the last three days to remember the name of a coastal resort area in Italy. It is a place I particularly liked and have often thought of returning. Yet, the name of the area escapes me. Usually when this happens, the name pops into my head a day or so later. But, so far, nothing. I will need to use Internet resources to find it.



Of course, it doesn't help that I watched "Stone Angel" on TV this past week. //http://www.alliancefilms.com/en/89/details/display/11360/
Hagar was suffering from a form of undiagnosed dementia and, just as in real life, it was downplayed and untreated. Her long-suffering devoted son and daughter-in-law focused on her physical ailments only.

Judging from the people I see around me, I suspect that this goes on more often than not. There is still such social stigma attached to so-called mental disease that people fall into this abyss called dementia and no one steps up to the plate to help them. Only when this disease is very advanced are any steps taken; often, it is too late.



Even when individuals themselves may suspect that there is a problem with cognition, they often don't take appropriate steps, not so much that they are incapable to do so, but because of the stigma attached to dementia. That, combined with the very murky ideas about aging and a failing mind leave many of us questioning when to react to iffy situations. What exactly is a seniors moment? And when does the odd memory lapse, which everyone has from time to time, constitute something more serious?

Over the summer, I read a so-called novel called Still Alice. Alice was a fictional high-achiever who developed Alzheimer's Disease. With her perfectly supportive husband and family, her disease progresses quickly and steadily to its bitter end.

Unlike real life where things get better and then get worse and then get a little better again, and where support services are difficult, if not impossible to find, this novel progresses like an appropriate soap opera to a natural conclusion. It was meant to leave readers with hope and enlightenment which it probably did but it was also sooooo unrealistic.

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Still-Alice/Lisa-Genova/9781439116883

Gorden Pincent played the husband of an Alzheimer's victim in the movie "Away From Her" not too long ago. To me, this felt like a more realistic rendering of the disease.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491747/

In our politically correct society, we have down-played standards. Surely there is criteria out there that can give us an idea of how a fifty or sixty or seventy year old brain should perform. Why can't we take a test and find out if we measure up?