Frist case of Alzheimers Disease

Margarita

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Feb 17, 2006
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Did anyone know that the Frist case of Alzheimers Disease

In 1901 it was a wife of 51 year a old woman only know as Auguste D' her personaliity is lost to history , her particulars , aside from the details of her ilness, are forgotten .


The name of the doctor , however , has become a household word . He as we all know him was Dr alois Alzheimer.

am reading a book , about the husband of auguste , telling his concerns to the German neurolgist .

I was taken back to read that the frist person was only 51 years old, I never new that , I thought it was only happening in the last 10 years that people got AZ so young , show how wrong I was .

reading about Auguste make it seem so real
 
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Grommit

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Apr 26, 2006
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Doncaster
Are you sure you should be reading a book like that at 8.50 on a Sunday night Maggie?

Aren' there more interesting things you could be doing like ballet dancing on the patio or eating chocolate?
 

connie

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Mar 7, 2004
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Frinton-on-Sea
I'll join in the ballet dancing, my first love. Have sworn off chocolate, more weight to lose.

Margarita, thanks for reminding us of the origins of this desease. Lionel did so much research when he was first diagnosed. I think I have read just about all I can now, and am just happy going along, trying to keep him on an even keel.
 

Áine

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Feb 22, 2006
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sort of north east ish
That's interesting Maggie. Does the book say anything about what happened before 1901? I assume people suffered from the same set of symptoms prior to 1900 .... I wonder what they made of it then?
 

Margarita

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Feb 17, 2006
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or eating chocolate?

I am doing that as I read my new book lol

I have to much of a passion to try to want to know why people attitude after a 106 years has gone by that, still think that AZ is an old age thing.

I am talking about AZ not other dementia

That this woman has been forgotten in time, while Mr AZ at the age of 37 got all the publicity.

They gave it a Name, but forgot the impact it must have had on her family, not so or none at all publicity that this woman was only 51 forgot with ignorance of the disease.

Amazes me that if it was not for the AZ starting up in 1979, we still would be like it was for the past 106 years

My daughter got me the book, that took her an hour and half to find in a book shop in London and she said it was the only one. :(

I do have other books that I got on the internet . when she gave it to me I thought to myself oh no not another book , I know all about AZ already , but this book is different more interesting , seem in life when you think you know it all , your really don't
 
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Grommit

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Apr 26, 2006
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Doncaster
My brother-in-law (strange thing the Ehnglish language when it cannot come up with a shorter name for brother-in-law or Mother -in- law or the rest of the in laws) has been conducting some family research into mental difficulties, in an attempt to try and find out why Jean should have picked up the disease when no-one in the immediate family has any record of it.

So far he has picked up on an "uncle" (probably not married to the aunt) and the brother of a great, great grandfather who committed suicide.

Additionally, he has turned up a couple of Jean's distant relatives, one of whom was incarcerated in a mental institute in the late 1850's, the other relative actaully working in the same institution at the same time as a carpenter or some other trade.
 

Helena

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May 24, 2006
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Before the 1950s when Thyroid Disease was properly recognised and there was treatment many many people were locked away with Myxodeama Madness

Tragedy is theres still a portion of people who do actually have a rare form /presentation of thyroid disease....... but because they fall into "the normal range " on blood tests they dont get diagnosed
 

Lila13

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Feb 24, 2006
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They used to call dementia and similar diseases "softening of the brain", didn't they? Most would have been put in an asylum and never visited, if they didn't have families (or servants) able to cope with them.
 

Lila13

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Feb 24, 2006
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I thought I was getting Alzheimer's before anyone thought my mother was. Luckily that turned out to be thyroid disorder, I am currently having radioactive therapy. (It is very easy to neglect one's own physical conditions when trying to look after someone whose needs seem greater, and the symptoms of almost any illness can get confused with stress, grief after a death, etc.).

(Also of course any woman who is ill in her fifties can be told it's just the menopause.)

Lila

Helena said:
Before the 1950s when Thyroid Disease was properly recognised and there was treatment many many people were locked away with Myxodeama Madness

Tragedy is theres still a portion of people who do actually have a rare form /presentation of thyroid disease....... but because they fall into "the normal range " on blood tests they dont get diagnosed
 
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janetruth

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Mar 20, 2007
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nuneaton
Hi Lila

11 years ago when I was 44 I had to have myThyroid removed, it was a condition called ' Hashimoto'. It took alot of other unrelated tests for them to pick this up and by the time it was diagnosed my thyroid had become swollen and was pressing on my windpipe.
My mum who was admitted to hospotal last year was diagnosed wirh an underactive Thyroid and the Doctor convinced us it was this condition that was giving mum all the symptoms of Alzheimers, even though we explained that she had been like this for some time and her 3 older sisters all had Alzheimers.
This Doctor was happy to discharge mum back to her sheltered housing bungalow with a SS care package.
Even with all that and family helping, mum had no idea where she was and was going downhill fast. with her own GP confirming our suspicions, he organised a phsyciatric nurse to visit. This all took a few weeks and alot of strain on the family.
Long story, but mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers 5 months after being discharged from hospital.
Mum who is 82 has lived with us for the past 8 months and now has a good quality of life and has improved, I'm glad to say, with the help of Reminyl, good food and lots of love and care.

There are so many symptoms related to the Thyroid, somtimes a simple blood test is all it takes.
I was also told at the start of my symptoms 'Its your age'

Sorry for waffling on
Janetruth x


Janetruth x
 

Margarita

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Feb 17, 2006
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london
Anie must of miss you post

It does say that , she was examined by a young German neurologist and even at the frist encounter he was perexed by her, unable to understand or diagnose her strange symptoms and behaviour . In all his medical training and experience he had never seen a case quite like this .

She had the same memory loss , the same difficulty with speech , the confusion and the general feebleness of reasoning , Yet she wasn’t senile, she wasn’t even very old


The woman was obviously suffering from a severs alteration in her mental faction, similar to what he had often seen in the very old and senile.
Her problem couldn’t be diagnosed as “senile dementia “- she was only 51.

She had been perfectly healthy for most of her life, never been in the hospital, had rarely been sick

The portly neurologist reviled his note and considered the case. Although Augusta’s mind was clearly gone, she had no infirmity in her body. The diagnosis wasn’t insanity, nor was it any of the other mental diseases he had seen so often before. this wasn’t the general paralysis of the insane seen in syphilis or the dementia of schizophrenia .

Nevertheless, it was clear that the pitiable woman in front of him had rapidly progressive mental disease



Alois Alzheimer was born 1864, he discovered the disease in this woman in 1901 so he was 37, so yes they could have been lots of people before 1901 like Auguste and they just ended up in a insane asylum Or lock in the attic like you see in those black white films



Auguste lived in the insane asylum in frankfiurt where Dr Alzhimers was the admitting neurologist.

They where years of anguish for both her and her family, it goes on to tell of her life in the asylum her systems ….

For four years, he watched her decline in the asylum.

After her death …………

The first thing Dr Alzheimer noted was that many of the expected brains cells were not visible – they were simply not there. He could see the empty site they once been, but the neurons (basic cells of the brain responsible fot all neurological thinking and activity had disappeared .


Also I read that the husband of Auguste had notice for years the change in his wife behaviour before the age of 51
 
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nicetotalk

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Sep 22, 2006
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stretford
Hi margarita

I to last week was reading a book at the liberey about the first case being of a young woman, ito was shocked how young she was i just thought its only over the last so many years or so that alzhiemers was affecting the young. I am sure befor 1901 many were put into institutions.
Its interesting you boughtthis up i found it a good read with some interesting facts. In 2006 last year we bought our mum into hospital, what was to be the last 3 weeks of her life and a doctor said no he does not think its alzheimers she was 62, he said she just seams young to go it. May be more doctors need to be educated that bit more on alzhiemers.

take care kathy
 

Margarita

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Feb 17, 2006
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london
I know I find it strange; I was talking to a student social worker that came around to my home. His doing a master working in mental health.

I found it strange that they do not study dementia while doing his masters in mental heath; he was taken back when I told him about how young the first person was when she got AZ, as I was taking about my brother, he was doing an assessment for my care needs on my brother, so I was asking if they was link with my brother mental illness, that could lead to dementia. He did not know about that only what I new already new with the link of alcohol abuse and dementia .

I must add I am sorry to read your mother age when she pass away If you don't mind me asking what did they say she died of ?
 

nicetotalk

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Sep 22, 2006
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stretford
Hi on her death certificate it just said End stage dementia what i find strange is when we went to pick up the death certificate the lady dealing with it said she can not except that. You can imagin our surprise she said she had to phone someone and we had to come back in a few days. Who she spoke to what was said we will never know so all it sais is end stage dementia
 

Lila13

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Feb 24, 2006
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They just put "dementia" on my mother's death certificate. I know she didn't die of dementia, but didn't feel up to arguing after it was all signed, (with the wrong date of birth on), as none of the family would have supported me.

I know we should have insisted on an inquest.

(Oh I know my mother wasn't young, but two of her sisters are older, and most of the old ladies of the previous generation were older, and didn't have dementia.)
 
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Margarita

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Feb 17, 2006
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london
The Daily Telegraph

Alzheimer's Disease

Dr William Molloy
Dr Paul Caldwell .

"This is a highly informative guide to a difficult problem
Dr James Le Fanu
The Daily Telegraph


Thats the words on the front of the book

I try looking for it on the internet , but could not find it .

My daughter got it in a UK Book shop