A final word or two before signing off
Looking back, my first sign of Alzheimer’s disease occurred 29 years ago in 2006 when I first noticed problems with my ability to smell. I had no cognitive problems at the time. In 2012,...
A Tattoo On My Brain Blog
Dazed and Confused
As time goes on, my Alzheimer’s disease has slowly progressed. Confusion for me is an everyday thing when I first awake, especially if I wake up during a dream. A few days ago I...
Shingles vaccination appears to reduce risk of dementia
A very interesting paper published last week in Nature reports a 20% reduction in the risk of getting dementia for up to seven years after getting vaccinated against shingles (herpes-zoster) with a live virus vaccine (Zostavax)....
Current status of gene therapy for APOE-4 homozygotes
As we all know by now, finding an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has not been easy. Our best results so far are two anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies, lecanumab (Leqembi) and donanemab (Kizuna). They are both...
Xenon to the rescue?
Xenon is one of the noble gases. If you remember back to high school chemistry class, the noble gases are all on the right side of the periodic table in group 18: helium (atomic...
My favorite coffee shop and the tattoo on my brain
People who have not yet read my book, A Tattoo on My Brain: A Neurologist’s Personal Battle against Alzheimer’s Disease, sometimes ask me about the meaning of the title. In 2016, I volunteered for a randomized,...
The alcohol conundrum
There is no disagreement that excessive alcohol consumption is bad for the brain. A 2019 review found that heavy alcohol use in humans was universally associated with an increased risk of all-cause dementia and reduced grey...
Happy Holidays
May there be peace and happiness for all.
Washington Post article
Today the Washington Post published my invited column titled “As a doctor, here’s what I have learned from my own Alzheimer’s disease.” I was really pleased with how it turned out. The editing was great,...
Talking about Alzheimer’s
Two weeks ago, Lois and I answered questions following a screening of the documentary film A Tattoo On My Brain at the Alzheimer’s Association McGinty Conference in Portland, Oregon. The audience consisted of about 400 people...
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