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alzheimers + (5)

University of Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history (men or women) has been diagnosed with early onset dementia. Regardless, she plans to continue coaching the Lady Vols for the 2011-12 season.
posted by The Gooch on Aug 23, 2011 - 16 comments

The Brain on Trial. Advances in brain science are calling into question the volition behind many criminal acts. A leading neuroscientist describes how the foundations of our criminal-justice system are beginning to crumble, and proposes a new way forward for law and order.

"We may someday find that many types of bad behavior have a basic biological explanation—as has happened with schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression, and mania."

[more inside]
posted by Eideteker on Jul 15, 2011 - 99 comments

American football player John Mackey has died at 69. Mackey, who scored a 75-yard touchdown for the Baltimore Colts in their victory in 1971's Super Bowl V, suffered from dementia. His wife Sylvia petitioned the NFL to create the 88 Plan, a program that pays for health care for NFL veterans with dementia. By 2007, Mackey, then 65, could not recognize former teammate Ralph Wenzel or distinguish coffee from soup. When the 88 Plan (so-named after Mackey's jersey number) was implemented in 2006, the NFL maintained that the plan, and the 97 players who then qualified for its assistance, "doesn't imply any link between football and brain damage". [more inside]
posted by Snarl Furillo on Jul 7, 2011 - 45 comments

Daughter of Horror (original title: Dementia) was a 1955 avant garde film featuring a noir style, a surrealist sensibility, and virtually no dialogue. A later version of the film even included an over-the-top voice over by none other than Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon, but like Blade Runner the flick is better off without the narration. Daughter of Horror is probably most famous for being the film playing in the theater overrun by The Blob. And with a few more surrealistic elements and peculiar dialogue added, this could have been done by David Lynch in a later decade. The film, recently featured on Turner Classic Movies, is available for free on archive.org.
posted by Celsius1414 on May 1, 2011 - 7 comments

What Broke My Father’s Heart: How putting in a pacemaker wrecked a family’s life.
posted by homunculus on Jun 20, 2010 - 76 comments

Some comics about mental illness by Darryl Cunningham. (via)
posted by MegoSteve on Jun 12, 2009 - 39 comments

Gore Vidal. Ralph Nader. Two men, praise worthy in the past, who perhaps now need to go home and take a nap. 2LYT
posted by mojohand on Nov 5, 2008 - 134 comments

She was 82. He was 95. They had dementia. They fell in love. And then they started having sex.
posted by Four-Eyed Girl on Jun 11, 2008 - 94 comments

Match It For Pratchett is a campaign to match Terry Pratchett's donation of $1 million (half a million pounds) to the UK charity, the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. Since they started on March 15, they've raised over $34k. [more inside]
posted by joannemerriam on Mar 18, 2008 - 11 comments

Love in the Time of Dementia Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s husband, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, has a romance with another woman, and the former justice is thrilled — even visits with the new couple while they hold hands on the porch swing — because it is a relief to see her husband of 55 years so content. (More on their story from AFP.) This is also the plot of the wonderful Alice Munro short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” which became the recent movie Away from Her. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses on Nov 19, 2007 - 43 comments

A snoezelen room is a multi-sensory environment that provides comfort for people with severe mental disabilities. They tend to incorporate a combination of visual, aural, and tactile stimulii, but can take many different forms. The rooms generally offer soothing, non-directive therapy, but the effects are hard to quantify. While mostly used with children, some think the snoezelen can help those with alzheimer's or dementia.
posted by jtajta on Mar 20, 2007 - 16 comments

Researchers have discovered men with an unusual form of dementia have a higher rate of vasectomy than men the same age who are cognitively normal. Okay, so maybe it should be that men think with their cojones? But will this be enough of a risk to outweigh the declared benefits of this procedure?
posted by jeanmari on Feb 19, 2007 - 31 comments

The links between some neurological disorders and increased artistic abilities are well documented. Some with decreased abilities elsewhere, such as those with semantic dementia, use it as a coping mechanism, whereas those with synaesthesia combine multiple senses to enhance their works. While some drugs, specifically LSD, can artificially produce synesthesia, that probably isn't a good muse.
posted by duende on Feb 11, 2006 - 9 comments

WFMU's Beware Of The Blog offers 21 variations on the most famous novelty record ever, the creation of recording engineer and goofball Jerry Samuels. Along with the madcappery the original album (now a highly valued collector's item) features nifty audio trickery and other delights. (also, my man matteo tells me that I Balordis Italian version is a baffling mistranslation but it still sounds as nutty as the original. I make no guarantees on any of the other foreign language versions). Get 'em while their hot. This nut's off to hunt the squirrels.
posted by jonmc on Sep 25, 2005 - 20 comments

Holocaust survivors with Alzheimer's are forced to relive Auschwitz. "At Baycrest's Apotex Centre, Jewish Home for the Aged in Toronto, 50 per cent of patients with dementia are Holocaust survivors for whom the loss of short-term memory condemns them, once again, to the death camps."
posted by mcwetboy on Sep 21, 2002 - 20 comments

Charton Heston has symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's But he plans to continue to hold the position of NRA President, at least until the dementia means he can no long aim effectively.
posted by djfiander on Aug 9, 2002 - 81 comments