By Jesse F. Ballenger in Newsday:

People with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are becoming an important resource as we face the challenge of caring for the many millions of people who will experience cognitive decline in the coming decades. Increasingly, they are testifying to their value and dignity as persons even as they face the progressive loss of their ability to function independently.

… the real power of these patients is to change perceptions of dementia, to allow caregivers to see people with dementia, whatever their losses and limitations, as still valuable, still able to make the world a better place.

We need more public funding for programs like these.

… If we view having dementia as a zero-sum game in which diagnosis equals complete burden on society, then clearly the situation is hopeless.

… But if we can learn from the experience of people with dementia that selfhood persists despite profound losses and limitations, if we learn to recognize and encourage the abilities that people with dementia retain to make the world better, we may be surprised to find that we have within us, all of us, the resources to meet the challenge.

Ballenger is a historian of medicine who teaches in the Science, Technology and Society Program at Penn State University.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News [Australia] and elsewhere:

In what was perceived as a blow to Australia’s euthanasia movement, two women were convicted of manslaughter and accessory to manslaughter in the death of former airline pilot Graeme Wiley.

Mr. Wylie, 71, died in March 2006 from an overdose of the veterinary drug Nembutal, which family friend Caren Jenning had bought and illegally imported from Mexico, and which his partner Shirley Justins had given to him in their home.

He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in March 2003 and the case centered on his capacity at the time of his death to decide whether he wanted to commit suicide.

The verdict prompted calls for changes in the law by pro-euthanasia advocates.

Associated Press in U.S. News & World Reports:

As Alzheimer’s patients are receiving earlier diagnoses, there is a growing movement of people demanding better care, increased research, community support, and respect.

They are giving a voice to a disease whose victims until now have remained largely silent, and powerless. It’s a shift with big ramifications.

Alzheimer’s patients are joining their counterparts with cancer and HIV to lobby Congress for more money to hunt treatments. Some are advising top scientists to push for higher-stakes research even if it means higher risks. They’re even offering unprecedented glimpses into how a mind slowly unravels as they blog about their dementia.

… One message: A huge hurdle is the stigma of a disease known mostly for its devastating end stage.

From Joseph Shapiro on NPR, a feature on a program in Cleveland in which older people with age-related cognitive challenges work with students in an inner-city charter school.

Studies of older people who did regular volunteer work in schools have suggested that volunteers increased physical strength, increased social activity and boosted cognitive activity. Dr. Peter Whitehouse, a co-founder of Cleveland’s Intergenerational School, is trying to prove that volunteering has health benefits for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia as well. He also hopes to stir more interest in the value of volunteer work.

Others wonder whether it is practical to allow people with dementia — who need help themselves — to volunteer in schools.

From the New York Times:

In a cruel coincidence that scientists do not yet fully understand, research has shown that people with Down syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality, have a much higher incidence of Alzheimer’s disease at an early age. Some studies have said that 60 to 75 percent of people over age 60 with Down syndrome will have Alzheimer’s, though Dr. Ira Lott, who is in charge of the Down syndrome program at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, said those studies have been limited in scope.

So as advances in health care have extended the average life expectancy of people with Down syndrome to more than 50 years today from 25 in 1983, doctors and family members are now struggling to cope with a double dose of disability.

Scientists hope research on the link between Alzheimer’s and Down syndrome may lead to knowledge that could help prevent Alzheimer’s in the general population.

Extended feature by Sally Sara includes interviews with Gerry Thomas and his sister Beth (above).

See earlier post: Researcher Mobley offers hope to people with Down syndrome

From the Associated Press, USA Today, ABC News and elsewhere:

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor took her family’s private battle with Alzheimer’s disease public Wednesday as she urged Congress to speed research and aid to fight the coming epidemic of the mind-destroying illness.

“Our nation certainly is ready to get deadly serious about this deadly disease,” she told the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

She has a personal stake. “My beloved husband John suffers Alzheimer’s,” she said. “He is not in very good shape at present.”

… More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. The number is poised to skyrocket, with 16 million people forecast to have it by 2050 thanks to a graying population. It already afflicts one in eight people 65 and older, and nearly one in two people over 85.

… Already, 10 million people are estimated to be sharing the overwhelming task of caring for a relative or friend with dementia, juggling jobs and other family responsibilities with little formal training, support or financial help available. The Alzheimer’s Association says the unpaid care they provide is valued at $89 billion.

O’Connor stepped down from the high court in 2005, saying she needed to care for her husband

Interview with O’Connor is here.

See earlier posts here and here.

From HealthDay News in the Washington Post, USA Today:

An estimated 10 million American baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease in their lifetime, placing enormous strains on the U.S. health-care system and the already overburdened network of caregivers, a new report predicts.

Currently, at least 5.2 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s, including 200,000 to 250,000 people under age 65. By 2010, projections say there will be 500,000 new cases of the mind-wasting disease each year, and nearly one million new cases annually by 2050, the report estimates.