While I am working on today's blog (Tuesday- 11/11/08), please visit the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com- and check the Daily News. There is a link there for some very short, informative videos on Alzheimer's Disease.
The only thing that saddens me about the videos is that they didn't talk about dementia as a whole in any of them. I'd say that half of us here are dealing with dementia that isn't primary Alzheimer's. Some of our LOs have Alzheimer's AND another dementia. I'm pretty sure my husband is one of them.
They were very well made, and yes, I'd pass them on to others.
When I put up the link to the videos, I had only watched the first one. I just watched all of them. They are so simple, straightforward, and informative, that I will be adding the link to the "Newly Diagnosed/New to this Website" section on the left side of the home page (www.thealzheimerspouse.com)
I went to a conference about a year and a half ago. Dr. Rudolph Tanzi was one of the speakers. He is a brilliant scientist, and he does a very good job of explaining all this science stuff to us science duds. But there was one part I just couldn't understand no matter how he tried to explain it. After watching the third video in the series, "race to the cure", I finally got what he was trying to say - check out the coke bottle analogy used in the video.
Joan, Those were great videos. Another analogy for the beta amyloid that clicked with me is one about a sink. In the earliest phase of the disease, it is like the faucet is turned on too high; there is an over-production of beta amyloid. As the disease progresses, the sink clogs; the beta amyloid cannot clear the brain.
Also I think the first video about the brain can help with understanding the progression of other dementias if a person knows the order that the brain regions are typically destroyed/attacked.