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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2018
Dementia, My Darling
If someone finds me on the road
If someone finds me on the road
in my nightgown, barefoot and talking
in my nightgown, barefoot and talking
If my talking nightgown
finds the road in me
and someone on barefoot
Or I'm throwing my money to the cars
Or I'm throwing my money to the cars
convinced I'm just feeding the ducks
convinced I'm just feeding the ducks
I'm feeding the money
the cars, or the ducks
I'm just convinced to throwing
Please lock me away
Please lock me away
and live your life
and live your life
and lock your life away
Please live me
If my talking convinced someone,
my barefoot lock on the road, ducks
in the cars throwing money to live
and the feeding finds me
and I'm me
or I'm your life
please just nightgown away
– Brendan ConstantineAnyone over the age of 60 would be foolhardy not to be fearful of dementia in general and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in particular, because it is very common. About one-third of people in the developed world have a family member or friend who has succumbed to one form or another of dementia, and these numbers are expected to soar thanks to longer lifespans. What makes dementia so horrifying is that it comes with the annihilation of memory and personal identity, to the extent that you eventually are unable to recognize even your loved ones. You end up as an empty shell of your former self.
When thinking about AD it is important to appreciate that AD and dementia are not one and the same thing. AD, which accounts for about 60 percent of dementia cases, causes problems with memory, language, and reasoning. It is characterized by the accumulation of deposits made up of a protein amyloid-β between, and tangles of another protein known as tau both between and within, brain cells. In describing AD it is important to distinguish “characterized by” from “caused by” because, as we will see, there is still some doubt here.
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