As my father neared the age of 90, he started calling me to ask, “Tommy, who was the second baseman for the Dodgers in 1952?” I would first ask why he needed to know this fact but with irritation he would continue to ask. Of course, I had no clue as to who the baseball player might have been, but soon enough learned that my father was engaged in the serious task of testing his memory to reassure himself that Mr. Alzheimer had not yet arrived.
The gradual loss of short and middle-term memory is a natural byproduct of aging, but indeed many families suffer the anguish of watching a mother, father or grandparent slip into the haze that is referred to as Alzheimer’s. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s increases with age so at age 65 less than 1 percent will contract it but by age 85 the numbers rise to 11 percent for men and 14 percent for women.
There are many artists who have addressed the problems of memory. Marcel Proust was the absolute best at capturing memory with “In Search of Lost Time,” his seven-volume masterpiece which began with his efforts to recapture the memory of having tea and Madeleine cookies with his aunt when he was 9. His manner of rediscovering childhood memories gave birth to an entire field of study in psychology called selective memory.
Joan Baez was a master of symbolizing memories, with her song “Diamonds and Rust” about her inability to forget her love affair with folk icon Bob Dylan.
Stanley Kubrick directed the 1968 science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey” where we watch as David Bowman degrades the intelligence of HAL 9000, the spaceship’s supercomputer, by removing its modules one by one. HAL 9000 once had possessed natural language skills, facial recognition ability, lip reading skills, art appreciation and could recognize human emotions, but as Bowman removes its modules gradually HAL finally regresses to childhood and eerily sings the song “Daisy Bell” with the lines “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do, I’m half-crazy over the love of you.” HAL’s plunge into forgetfulness mimics Alzheimer’s well.
The filmmaker Ridley Scott was also good at mining the tragedy of lost memory in the 1982 science fiction classic “Blade Runner.” In a role that came to define his career, Rutger Hauer plays the android Roy Batty, who has only a few moments left to live and as the android dies, he says: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orien. I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark near Tannhauser Gates. All these moments lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
This speech which was improvised by Rutger Hauer at the last minute before shooting is a soliloquy on the impermanence of life and man’s inability to achieve immortality.
More recently, the 2004 film “The Notebook” by Nick Cassavetes addressed Alzheimer’s more directly. Gena Rowlands and James Garner star in this film shot in a nursing home where Duke, played by Garner, spends his days reading from his notebook to an Alzheimer’s patient named Allie., played by Rowlands. The story flashes back to the actual events being described in the notebook, which are about when they were both young and in love, though Allie does not remember any of that.
But what will surely become known as the definitive statement on Alzheimer’s is “The Father,” the 2020 film starring Anthony Hopkins as a man slipping into the confused haze of Alzheimer’s as his devoted daughter played by Olivia Colman does her best to make his decline as painless as possible. This film is variously heartbreaking, tender, terrifying, humorous and incredibly sad and the final scene will have you crying all the way home. Hopkins and Colman will certainly receive Oscars for their performances and the film itself was a great triumph by demonstrating that only art is able to face down sadness and death.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder due to brain atrophy and is the most common cause of dementia. Symptoms include memory impairment, language disturbance, loss of ability to carry out motor tasks, failure to recognize objects and an inability to live independently. The onset is often seen with memory loss of recent events which the film “The Father” showed brilliantly. Sufferers will often repeat questions, misplace objects, get lost, show apathy, withdrawal, distrust, wandering, loss of inhibitions and paranoia. There is a very gradual decline over time and the average duration of illness from onset to death is usually about 10 years.
A few of my patients have relatives who are currently suffering with Alzheimer’s and I can see their anguish as they are faced with the grim truth that the person they once knew and loved seems to have vacated their bodies. What is helpful is to guide them to discuss their feelings, to share the load with other family members and to make plans which include finances and nursing home admission.
At the beginning and in the middle stages of this disease, there are things that one can do with the family member showing decline such as listening to old music with them, doing some easy dancing and looking at old family albums. Body language is key so get down to eye level, keep the conversations simple and keep them active by helping them to stretch, walk more and engage in simple tasks around the house like dusting. These things serve to expend energy, so they sleep better and wander less.
We do not have a cure yet. but there are anti-depressants, anxiety control medication and sleep aides that help.
A variety of measures reduce the risk of contracting Alzheimer’s including exercising regularly, eating fresh produce and a Mediterranean diet, losing weight, not smoking, attending social events, reading, dancing, playing board games, making art, and playing an instrument.
Alzheimer’s is a common problem as people age and I would recommend the things I outlined above and by all means go see “The Father.”
