Back to the San Juan and Gulf Islands
Sailing with my friends Henry and John on a chartered sailboat has been an annual treat since 1999. We missed out in 2020 because of Covid, and in 2021 we could not cross over from...
Author: Dan
Surprisingly good news about the acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, rivastigmine, and galantamine)
When I first started practicing neurology in 1989, there were absolutely no medications that mitigated cognitive deterioration in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. There were drugs for some of the unwanted symptoms like sleep reversal,...
The amyloid hypothesis is not dead, but it may be gasping for breath
The amyloid hypothesis has been the dominant theory for the cause of Alzheimer’s disease for over 20 years. In brief, the theory holds that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by accumulation of beta-amyloid that damages...
My photographs in 1978 and 2022
In 1978, I was in the fifth year of the six-year Medical Scientist Training Program leading to MD and PhD degrees at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a rigorous program, but I...
A second read of Losing My Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer’s Disease
While enjoying the July 4th holiday on the Oregon Coast with my family this weekend, I reread Thomas DeBaggio’s memoir of his early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. It was published in 2000, two years after his diagnosis...
Negative results from the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative’s (API) Colombian study
So far, several trials of anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies have failed to provide unequivocal evidence of reversing or even slowing cognitive decline in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild Alzheimer’s dementia, despite marked...
My Father’s “Stuff” – Looking Back on Father’s Day
My father, Zack Gibbs, was 44 when I was born in 1951. He died of cancer 16 years later at age 60. Throughout his life he had been a tinkerer. He liked to build things...
Hitting the sweet spot in the spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease for future trials of anti-amyloid medications
As I have discussed in previous posts, evidence of beta-amyloid plaques can be found in the brains of people up to 20 years prior to the onset of cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease....
Rolling on the River
The Columbia River originates in the mountains of British Columbia, runs north for a while, then south, then west passing through an 80 mile long, 4000 ft deep gap in the Cascade Mountains called...
Living in the moment with Alzheimer’s
When we are young, the timeline of our lives stretches from our earliest memories to our expectations for the future. As the cognitive impairment of Alzheimer’s disease progresses, that timeline begins to constrict. Perhaps surprisingly,...
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