The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic
Books / Paperback
Books › Health & Fitness › Health Care Issues
ISBN: 0385498381 / Publisher: Anchor, January 2003
A study of the devastating impact of Alzheimer's disease combines portraits of patients, their families, and caregivers with an analysis of the signs, symptoms, and implications of the disease and a close-up look at the search for a cure.
Read More
NATIONAL BESTSELLERA powerfully engaging, scrupulously researched, and deeply empathetic narrative of the history of Alzheimer’s disease, how it affects us, and the search for a cure.Afflicting nearly half of all people over the age of 85, Alzheimer’s disease kills nearly 100,000 Americans a year as it insidiously robs them of their memory and wreaks havoc on the lives of their loved ones. It was once minimized and misunderstood as forgetfulness in the elderly, but Alzheimer’s is now at the forefront of many medical and scientific agendas, for as the world’s population ages, the disease will touch the lives of virtually everyone. David Shenk movingly captures the disease’s impact on its victims and their families, and he looks back through history, explaining how Alzheimer’s most likely afflicted such figures as Jonathan Swift, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Willem de Kooning. The result is a searing and graceful account of Alzheimer’s disease, offering a sobering, compassionate, and ultimately encouraging portrait.
Read Less