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The Fight Against Alzheimer's
by Joseph Jebelli
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This is a book about the past, present and future of Alzheimer's. I started my investigation from the very beginning, from the first recorded case more than 100 years ago, right up to the cutting-edge research being done today. It is a story as good as any detective novel. It took me to nineteenth-century Germany and post-war England; to the jungles of Papua New Guinea and the technological proving grounds of Japan; to America, India, China, Iceland, Sweden and Colombia; and to the cloud-capped spires of the most elite academic institutions. Its heroes are expert scientists from around the world–many of whom I have had the privilege of working with–and the incredibly brave patients and families who have changed the way scientists think about Alzheimer's, unveiling a pandemic that took us centuries to track down, and, above all, reminding everyone never to take memory–our most prized possession, the faculty Jane Austen called 'more wonderful' than the rest–for granted.
Abbas didn't live long with his illness. In Iran, like a candle burning itself out, his mind faded and vanished within seven years. It had reached an unknown destination, a place every patient I spoke to was heading and somewhere one in three people born in 2015 is bound for as well. I think about that nearly every day. It's what has driven me forward.
Author's Note
THE STORIES IN this book are real stories. Some patients have already received public attention for their illness and so were happy for me to use their real names. However, for reasons of anonymity, and because Alzheimer's disease remains stigmatised in some parts of the world, other patients requested privacy. In these instances I have changed their names and identifying details. I ask the reader to respect their right to confidentiality.
PART I
Origins
1
The Psychiatrist with a Microscope
WHEN HE FINISHED his talk, Alois turned to the audience. There were nearly 100 guests in attendance, which usually assured a lively discussion. Alois–frank and commanding with a stout face, coiffed moustache, piercing gaze and immense stature–waited confidently. But no one spoke. Had they not understood him? Sensing an uncomfortable silence, the chairman intervened: 'So there, respected colleague Alzheimer, I thank you for your remarks, clearly there is no desire for discussion.'
It was 3 November 1906. Dr Alois Alzheimer, a psychiatrist in Munich, was at the South-West German Psychiatrists' meeting in Tübingen to describe a fifty-six-year-old woman with a peculiar and unexplained mental disorder. Her name was Auguste Deter.
Auguste had been brought to Alzheimer four years earlier by her husband Karl, a railroad worker who had spent the last eight months watching his wife's behaviour deteriorate. The couple had been married for twenty-eight years, had one daughter, and were living a normal, healthy and happy life together.
But things changed when Auguste became inexplicably paranoid about the relationship between Karl and their female neighbour. More disturbing still was Auguste's severe decline in memory. She was the epitome of a good German housewife, and so it struck Karl as highly unusual when she started neglecting her housework and making mistakes in the kitchen. Over the next few months Auguste wandered aimlessly round their apartment, hiding family possessions and speaking ominously of death. Her delusions resulted in panic when she started to believe that a carriage driver was trying to break into the apartment.
Excerpted from In Pursuit of Memory by Joseph Jebelli. Copyright © 2017 by Joseph Jebelli. Excerpted by permission of Little Brown & Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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