Dr. Peter Whitehouse will transform the way we think about Alzheimer’s disease. In this provocative and ground-breaking book he challenges the conventional wisdom about memory loss and cognitive impairment; questions the current treatment for Alzheimer’s disease; and provides a new approach to understanding and rethinking everything we thought we knew about brain aging. The Myth of Alzheimer’s provides welcome answers to the questions that millions of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease – and their families – are eager to Is Alzheimer’s a disease? What is the difference between a naturally aging brain and an Alzheimer’s brain? How effective are the current drugs for AD? Are they worth the money we spend on them? What kind of hope does science really have for the treatment of memory loss? And are there alternative interventions that can keep our aging bodies and minds sharp? What promise does genomic research actually hold? What would a world without Alzheimer’s look like, and how do we as individuals and as human communities get there? Backed up by research, full of practical advice and information, and infused with hope, THE MYTH OF ALZHEIMER’S will liberate us from this crippling label, teach us how to best approach memory loss, and explain how to stave off some of the normal effects of aging. Peter J. Whitehouse, M.D., Ph.D., one of the best known Alzheimer’s experts in the world, specializes in neurology with an interest in geriatrics and cognitive science and a focus on dementia. He is the founder of the University Alzheimer Center (now the University Memory and Aging Center) at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University where he has held professorships in the neurology, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, organizational behavior, bioethics, cognitive science, nursing, and history. He is also currently a practicing geriatric neurologist. With his wife, Catherine, he founded The Intergenerational School, an award winning, internationally recognized public school committed to enhancing lifelong cognitive vitality. Daniel George, MSc, is a research collaborator with Dr. Whitehouse at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Medical Anthropology at Oxford University in England. “I don’t have a magic bullet to prevent your brain from getting older, and so I don’t claim to have the cure for AD; but I do offer a powerful therapy—a new narrative for approaching brain aging that undercuts the destructive myth we tell today. Most of our knowledge and our thinking is organized in story form, and thus stories offer us the chief means of making sense of the present, looking into the future, and planning and creating our lives. New approaches to brain aging require new stories that can move us beyond the myth of Alzheimer’s disease and towards improved quality of life for all aging persons in our society. It is in this book that your new story can begin." -Peter Whitehouse, M.D., Ph.D.
Whitehouse starts with a premise that is supported by facts: Alzehimer's and dementia are terms of art rather than precise medical conditions, and what we label disease is often a product of cultural expectations of aging. So far, so good. Unfortunately, he goes much further, making claims that are not validated by research.
For example, the author sees dementia as a kind of spiritual fulfillment--in a vague, "I'm not a Buddhist, but I integrate his wisdom into my clinical care," kind of way. He claims that people with dementia "may actually be moving to a state of inward calm and simplicity" and that progressive dementia "creates the opportunity...to deepen relationships and re-embrace a familial interdependency that our fast-paced lives often fracture." Yeah, right. Tell that to the woman who, due to memory loss, has to rediscover she is a widow every day.
Whitehouse constantly minimizes the terrible consequences of memory loss and cognitive decline, as if all these sad-sack old people and their families need is a recipe to make lemonade out of lemons. Don't call the effects of Alheimer's a loss of self, he cajoles, call it a "change of self." He doesn't seem to appreciate that most people don't perceive or experience dementia as a positive change.
By correlating dementia with "normal" aging, Whitehouse is doing more than presenting a semantic or philosophical argument about the end of life; he is creating a framework of belief that encourages families and doctors to accept, rather than treat, cognitive and memory deficits in older people. He wants public policy decisions about how we spend money on medical research to reflect his dementia-is-normal perspective, too.
Maybe some memory loss and cognitive decline is normal as we age. I don't know. What I do know is that what is normal in human experience isn't necessarily what is desirable. Human aspiration calls out for what is more than normal.
There were some hard parts emotionally, but this ended up being a very productive book.
The hard part is because of how it brushes up against what is already there for me, living with a disease that he doesn't even name too much. As the title indicates, we have mythologized our thinking about Alzheimer's - what causes it and what it means, but also the likelihood of a cure.
Scientifically, some of this is about how the beta-amyloid plaque and the neurofibrillary tangles show up in brains without Alzheimers too, and could even be a corrective response to attacks on the brain. That is important to understand in thinking about research and medication.
So there is a part of accepting that which is really hard, but it was already there. Even thinking that it is a more concrete diagnosis with a cure on the way, that was probably never going to be in time to help us, and there is an open wound there, for current loss and pending loss.
As you accept that, it becomes more about finding the good parts in dealing with memory loss, aging, and mortality, which are there, and I knew about them, but the pain is real too. The book acknowledges that but doesn't dwell on it.
Then it becomes about connecting and living meaningfully - which remains possible - and also focusing on prevention. Toxicity in the environment and educational opportunity and the availability of nutritious foods and protecting developing children are all things that become important and that I believe in.
So really, this is a very important book, but if someone you love, including yourself, is having cognitive issues, you will feel the pain that is already there. There is hope in the book too, but not the kind that was expected.
Betty Friedan helped change our thoughts and language about gender relations. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped change our thoughts and language about racial relations. Now Dr. Peter Whitehouse is helping change our thoughts and language about aging - more particularly about our aging brains. And this is a very good time for another social revolution in thought and language. Seventy-eight million Baby Boomers are reaching a time in life when brain changes due to aging are inevitable and, with enough time passing, universal.
The language we use to describe the inevitabilities of cognitive aging tap into the deepest reservoirs of fear: senior moments, dementia, loss of self, and organic brain dysfunction. In particular, we think of two words with unspoken angst: Alzheimer's disease.
In "The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis," Dr. Whitehouse and his young literary protégé, Daniel George, address the very foundation of our cultural and social relationships to the most dreaded disease of modern times. First described in 1907 by Alois Alzheimer, this disease has grown into a "$100-billion-a-year marketing and research juggernaut, with more than 25 million afflicted worldwide." The victims of this mysterious milady face ostracism, institutionalization, isolation, loneliness and dependency. The perpetrators of the Myths are comfortable with our collective fears because they inspire research budgets, drug sales, elaborate diagnostic testing protocols, and nicely decorated prison facilities.
Above all, the Myths perpetrators create another class of human being, the unfortunate mortals who are less-than-fully human because of diminishing memories, communication skills and competencies with the activities of daily living. They are dying brains without hearts. To most of us, such a medical diagnosis is a decree worse than death itself. It is what we dread for our parents; it is what we fear for ourselves. The authors believe the time has come to change our language and our innate conceptions of cognitive aging
With more than 30 years of experience as a scientist and geriatric neurologist, Dr. Whitehouse has been at the forefront of the evolution of the disease we call Alzheimer's. He has earned over a million dollars consulting with pharmaceutical companies about development of cholinesterase inhibitors, the contemporary silver bullets in drug therapies for early treatment of disease symptoms. He has accepted grants to support research and education in service of the same industry, valued at millions of more dollars. He has traveled the world to discuss the marvels of the coming cognitive pharmacopeia, again a benefactor of drug industry dollars.
And, finally, he has set in motion a pugnacious call for sensibility and a more informed public. As he portends, "(the book) is at root a book for Baby Boomers and health care professionals, and anyone else who wants to join me in bringing a new understanding to Alzheimer's disease and taking control of their own brain aging."
Taking control is a clarion call for the Boomer generation. Taking control is our legacy, and at exactly the right moment in the trajectory of our lives, Peter Whitehouse passionately compels us to take control of the source of our humanity, our creativity, our intellect, our personhood ... our brains. He suggests we have choices if we have knowledge and wisdom. He suggests we have dignity if we change our paradigms. He suggests we have the power to change what it means to be human across the entire lifespan, up to and including the twilight years when some of us inevitably will confront the challenges of cognitive decline. He suggests we no longer need passively to resign to medicine's most fearsome diagnosis, for either ourselves or those we love. He tells us we can deconstruct Alzheimer's and together create a more humanistic, healthy and hopeful view of brain aging. That can be our generation's final legacy.
To help us get from here to there (by overcoming the tyranny of AD), the authors have written a new narrative about brain aging. By employing the transformative power of stories and anecdotes, buttressed by the precision of hard science, they take readers through a fascinating journey.
Unabashedly they stare down the mythmakers. AD is not a brain disease or a mental illness; symptoms we associate with AD are not simply a brain's molecular breakdown occurring in old age but more often "a rainstorm that occurs throughout life." A new conception demands this cluster of cognitive changes to become both an individual's and humanity's long-term responsibility, from personal health choices to taking care of the planet that sustains and, because of environmental degradation, poisons us.
Dr. Whitehouse challenges us that AD does not lead to loss of self, as we might have envisioned the plight of President Ronald Reagan; rather, persons with cognitive impairment are still able to be vital contributors to society until the final days of life. By evoking new paradigms about brain aging, we can allow people the noble opportunities to continue contributing. For example, Dr. Whitehouse is also a founder with his wife of The Intergenerational School, a farsighted institution that brings children together with wise teachers who are great repositories of life's most important lessons.
If this book simply accomplished the objective of "creating a new cultural narrative that can shape the way we age in the twenty-first century," it would be an important work worthy of careful review and contemplation. But the good doctor and his protégé take their work even further by creating a new model of living with brain aging. Dr Whitehouse unveils everything we need to understand, from preparing for a doctor's visit to knowing how to live successfully with aging across the human lifespan.
So, in the end, he teaches readers how to "think like a mountain." For example, Boomers can climb the first peak by rethinking mortality. Instead of elevating "anti-aging" as the highest purpose for our credit cards, Dr. Whitehouse suggests that the energy (both psychic and monetary) for self-preservation can instead be directed at "becoming agents of great change in the world," the final expression of Boomers' highest aspirations in youth. Another peak to scale is self-indulgence that costs our health. So simply he suggests eating well, exercising judiciously and eliminating bad habits that foster disease.
This seminal book isn't just about Alzheimer's or the Myths that infuse the disease with too much power over our collective consciousness; it is the most intelligent work thus far about our generation's final crusade, the quest for wisdom in our longevity.
Reaction: daring book for his time, giving new light, up to 2008, about the status of AD as we know it thus far. Consider diving into current science to see what’s new and how much more we have progressed in understanding this condition as a physiological, psychological, social, cultural, economic, political, anthropological point of view Writing Style: easy read for anyone of all ages, especially for those experiencing or knows someone with this condition, lots of anecdotes, and honesty in the limits of his expertise as a clinician, researcher, and a medical educator Argumentation: takes a controversial point on a condition that is slated to be the most devastating of all old age conditions, and how we can better manage the many challenges that come with preventative care, management, and person-centered intervention Commendation: a wealth of experiences from decades in the field as a researcher, clinician, pharmaceutical consultant, educator, and a real person Critique: takes time to reassure over and over that he is not the expert but then he gives a well thought out explication of a novel perspective on AD as a condition of an aging brain
Co-authored with Daniel George, Whitehouse expresses his opinion that Alzheimer's isn't truly a disease; the well-known symptoms are caused by an aging brain. The two of them discuss the original naming as well as pharmaceutical products currently being prescribed and the ill effect it has had on patients. The inevitable loss of brain functioning would be better served (they feel) through diet, exercise, reduction of environmental exposures as well as stress, and participating in vital activities to build a cognitive reserve. They urge continuation of such activities even after the first signs of memory loss appear. Whitehouse is a neurologist who has specialized in geriatrics and cognitive science with a focus on dementia. The book is an excellent resource for family members trying to sort out what should be done for an affected loved one
Dr. Whitehouse is a geriatric neurologist who is concerned with society's way of viewing Alzheimer's -as a disease that we have to win the war against. He says seeing patients as victims in a vicious battle is unhelpful and causes a great deal of anxiety in all of us. Dr. Whitehouse prefers that we see Alzheimer's as a part of the natural brain aging process that we will all experience, to one degree or another. We need to learn how to make sufferers of dementia comfortable in their own communities and filled with as much purpose as is possible. He is concerned that our present view only serves to fill the coffers of Big Pharma.
An excellent book for anyone with aging parents or someone aging themselves. It challenges the notion that Alzheimer's is always a death sentence and challenges the urge to "label and classify" people. It recognizes that cognitive decline is a part of life and challenges people (caretakers and elderly alike) to think out of the box for ways to make the most of what is left and to live without so much fear of the future.
A leading clinician and researcher makes a convincing case that Alzheimer's is a flawed, counter-productive diagnosis, a disease without a single cause or likely cure. He seeks to help people live in a preventative way and then deal with the challenges of an aging brain in life-affirming ways.
I agree with most of his basic points -- but didn't really get why he kept trumpeting his point of view as so radical and new. Yes, maybe 15 years ago. It's an OK book but it wasn't what I was hoping for.
"The Myth of Alzheimer's" - written by Peter J Whitehouse and published in 2008 by St Martin's Press. Local Cleveland physician Whitehouse imparts some good advice and also the awareness that he has worked very hard in this field.
Very interesting ideas relating to brain aging. To sum it up: mind over matter. If one and one's doctor has a positive attitude towards brain aging it can not be a death sentence.
Powerful book by a top expert. Relax about so-called Alzheimer's. If it scares you, you'll feel so much better after reading this. If you're old, pass it on to your kids.