Alzheimer

Eddie Robinson, college football's winningest coach, has Alzheimer's, his wife said. "He's pretty bad," Doris Robinson said yesterday. "He gets a little bit worse every day. He comes to the table for breakfast, but after that he wants to go right to bed. " During his 57 years at Grambling, a career which spanned 11 presidents, several wars and the civil-rights movement, Robinson compiled a record of 408-165-15. His teams had only nine losing seasons and won 16 conference titles and nine national black college championships.

Robert Essner is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Wyeth As the first wave of baby boomers steps up to the front line of mortality, we face a disease that will claim one in 10 and soon become epidemic: Alzheimer's. In terms of misery, the disease is one of the worst. Memory goes first, taking with it independence, dignity and quality of life. Alzheimer's is not an inevitable part of aging. It's a disease we can beat back as we did AIDS, which within six years of its discovery went from a fatal diagnosis to a chronic condition.

Police in Winslow Township, Camden County, are searching for a man with Alzheimer's disease who disappeared Thursday afternoon. Lyndsay Shannon was last seen at 3 p.m. Thursday wearing blue jeans, brown shoes, and a blue sweater. He was not wearing a jacket. In the past, the man has been found in Marlton and in Blackwood. He is black, 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 190 pounds with short gray hair and a beard. Police ask anyone with information to call Detective Brian Barret at 609-561-3300.

We hear a lot of crowing from Washington about our freedoms. But President Bush's 2007 budget shows scant concern for the 4.5 million Americans who have lost their freedom to dementia, most commonly Alzheimer's disease. Back in June, before the first songbirds of dawn, a small group of your neighbors peeled themselves from bed and boarded a bus in Marlton for Washington, hoping Congress would restore spending that has an impact on an estimated 83,000 South Jerseyans afflicted with Alzheimer's and other dementia.

For all men and women with Alzheimer's, time is all day and night, light and dark. . . . They are, in many ways, like children. But they are still hemmed in by an adult's sense of modesty and an adult's anxiety.. . . We fill the house with cheer, real and manufactured. Something involving cinnamon and butter is always baking. Glenn Miller is always on the radio. . . . We make a casserole. We make small talk. . . . Proponents of stem-cell research hope to cure Alzheimer's. This would be a great goodness.

The Alexander Silberman Center at Crozer-Chester Medical Center plans to study the effectiveness of a new drug that may help to slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The center is one of about 25 sites in the United States chosen by Searle Pharmaceutical Co. to evaluate the drug, Cycloserine, in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. The Memory Institute in Philadelphia is also part of the study. Dr. Steven D. Targum, chairman of the psychiatry department at Crozer- Chester, expects about 24 patients to participate in the two-year study at the Alexander Silberman Center, a facility that offers a range of medical services and programs for the elderly.

The Alzheimer's Association of Greater Philadelphia will kick off what could be the most successful fund-raising "Memory Walk" in the country on Sunday. The association expects as many as 2,500 sponsored walkers who are helping in the effort to raise money for Alzheimer's research . Julia Alexander King and I are co-chairs of Sunday's event. We've been supported by an energetic team of dedicated recruiters. Channel 10's Orien Reid is a driving force behind the fund-raiser.

Researchers have discovered optic-nerve damage in victims of Alzheimer's disease that may make it possible someday to diagnose the illness with an eye exam. Even though Alzheimer's disease, with an estimated 2.5 million victims in this country, is a major cause of senility, it is not the only cause. Its symptoms are confusing, and doctors often cannot be sure they have diagnosed it correctly until the patient dies and an autopsy is performed. In a new study, published in today's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers have found degeneration of the optic nerves in people with Alzheimer's disease.

Following a radio signal emitted by a bracelet, Philadelphia police this week were able to locate a 77-year-old man with Alzheimer's disease who had been missing for a day. The man was last seen leaving a residence in the 200 block of North 52d Street about noon Sunday, police said. His family reported him missing about 3 p.m. Monday. The man was enrolled in the SafetyNet program, run by LoJack, the company that helps locate stolen cars. SafetyNet supplied police with the man's bracelet frequency.

Question: Are there any tests out there for Alzheimer's disease? Answer: As of now, the only definitive test for Alzheimer's disease is the analysis of brain tissue after death. That's why folks with a presumptive diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease are described as having "senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type. " However, there may soon be a new blood test that can accurately diagnose Alzheimer's and differentiate it from other forms of dementia. Researchers at Canada's McGill University have found there is a dramatic difference between the production of the hormone DHEA in folks with Alzheimer's disease versus those without dementia or even other forms of dementia.