EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE - EOAD

Alzheimer's Disease is always thought of as a disease of the elderly. The picture is one of a frail, grandmother/grandfather in their 80's whose memory fails, and they are eventually relegated to Nursing Home Care.

Even the public perception of Alzheimer's Disease and the elderly is not accurate, but this section will not address that issue. This section is entirely devoted to Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease, which is defined as Alzheimer's Disease that strikes people younger than age 65. These people are often in the prime of their financial and personal lives. They are working at a job that usually has medical insurance attached to it; they are raising children; they are active members of their community, and suddenly, their lives are instantly changed with the diagnosis - Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease. They are no longer able to work. They lose not only their jobs, but their health insurance. They are no longer elibible for either life insurance or long-term insurance.

Their spouses are burdened with a financial and emotional nightmare. They are trying to pick up the slack of the lost income; trying to cope with their spouses failing abilities and memory; trying to deal with raising their children AND helping them through the trauma of watching their father or mother's declining cognition, abilities, comprehension, and memory, AND they are trying to cope with their own burden of caregiving and emotional devastation of a lost future.

See Below for articles, videos, and information related to Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease.

ARTICLES:

Calcium Abnormalities Linked to Familial Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease

Gene Variation Linked to Earlier Onset of Alzheimer's Symptoms

Our Reader - Tony Pesare -A super-father's day, as he raises 3 kids while wife battles Alzheimer's - Orlando Sentinal

Tony's local newspapers have done 4 articles about him, but the links keep breaking - He is sending me hard copies of the articles, which I will try to scan into the computer and make available to you.

Living with EOAD - the story of the Rodriguez family by WPTV news anchor Jim Sackett

Sufferers of Early Onset Alzheimer's Describe Life with the Disease - Jim Lerher - PBS - See video below

Too Young for Alzheimer's - by Joe Wolfcale

VIDEOS:

CLICK HERE to view CBS video highlighting the EOAD story of one of our readers.

CLICK HERE for PBS video from Jim Lerher article above.

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