| | |  Health & Beauty | May 2009 
The Disease That Steals Your Self
 Alessandra Stanley - New York Times
go to original
The 10 warning signs listed online by the Alzheimer’s Association include not recognizing oneself in the mirror and giving large amounts of money to telemarketers. Also, Cognitivelabs.com offers free instant memory tests, but the scoring system at the end can be confusing.
These tips are offered here because it is almost impossible to watch even a portion of “The Alzheimer’s Project” on HBO without worrying. Many viewers will be tempted to search the Internet or call 877-IS IT ALZ in a sudden panic over blank spells: “Did I already take my Lipitor?” and “That funny blond actress, you know, the one in that old movie about Washington with the guy who was in ‘Picnic’?” (Judy Holliday, “Born Yesterday,” William Holden.)
Memory loss is a terrifying prospect, and “The Alzheimer’s Project,” a sober, deeply affecting four-documentary series on HBO that begins on Sunday, seeks to comfort and encourage those whose worst fears turn out to be true.
The project was made in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, which provided scientific information and guidance, but the filmmakers had the final word on editing. And HBO chose as its marketing motto “HOPELESS,” printed with a big purple X over the “LESS.” The message conveyed by “The Alzheimer’s Project” is that a breakthrough — in prevention and treatment, and even possibly a cure — is at hand.
In interviews some of the most eminent scientists in the field exude enthusiasm and optimism. Dr. Paul Aisen, a neuroscientist who heads the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego, says, “There’s a sense of excitement in the field of drug development for Alzheimer’s disease that I think is beyond anything else in health care now.”
Neither he nor the filmmakers deliver many caveats about the long, bumpy road from clinical trial to prescription pad. At times the collective exuberance is so persuasive that viewers have to remind themselves that there is as yet no way to prevent the disease or even slow its progress.
And that’s a problem. It suggests that “The Alzheimer’s Project” comes with an implicit agenda of morale boosting — and fund-raising — that could compromise a balanced understanding of this frightening and complicated disease.
HBO has undertaken public-service programming before in documentary projects like “Addiction” and “Cancer: Evolution to Revolution.” This one is the most ambitious to date, a multiplatform event with offshoots on all the HBO channels as well as Facebook and YouTube; the project’s Internet site (hbo.com/alzheimers) also offers 15 short films, culled from material that was edited out of the main documentaries, and PublicAffairs published a companion book, “The Alzheimer’s Project: Momentum in Science,” in May.
The documentary series itself is made up of four separate films by different directors and producers. “The Memory Loss Tapes,” “Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?” and “Caregivers” focus on patients and their families, while the two-part “Momentum in Science” explains the advances in scientific research.
One likely reason the project’s creators were so intent on a sunny view of Alzheimer’s in the future is that the portraits of the disease as it is lived now are so harrowing. In “The Memory Loss Tapes,” on Sunday, Joe Potocny, 63, a retired computer programmer in California, seems to be doing O.K. under the circumstances. He writes a blog about living with Alzheimer’s, has a supportive wife and a sense of humor, and seems to be holding onto his identity, even though, as he puts it, “I used to be a genius, and now I’m not.” His mind is slowly falling away, however, “in slices.” In one scene he tells his doctor that he won’t let himself succumb completely.
“I told Lynn and the kids when it gets to the point to where I — I feel that I’m stepping over the line, going to become totally a different person, that they would all be — be given a hug and a kiss and said goodbye to, and I will leave,” he says defiantly. “There’ll be no way to save me. There’ll be no gun, there’s other ways to do it that are 100 percent sure within seconds.”
Joe isn’t typical, because no case is typical. The men and women who are showcased in the film are very different in age, background, attitude and degree of infirmity. The film begins with a cheerful, energetic 87-year-old woman in Wisconsin who is only beginning to lose track of her thoughts and closes with a 79-year-old man, a former magician and host of a local children’s television show, on his death bed.
The Institutes of Health estimate that as many as five million Americans may have Alzheimer’s, but that number doesn’t reflect the families, friends and health care professionals who live with the disease as well. The film examines in depth the sacrifices made by patients’ families.
Grandchildren are not left out. Maria Shriver, whose father, Robert Sargent Shriver, 93, has Alzheimer’s, is the narrator and executive producer of “Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?” on Monday, a film that focuses on how kids respond to relatives with Alzheimer’s — at times, more naturally and gracefully than adults. The youngsters speak for themselves directly into the camera, often quite bluntly.
“I don’t like seeing Grandma anymore,” a teenager says after a visit to the nursing home. “Every time I see her, that’s one more time I see her like this and one less time that I see her the way she was.”
Ms. Shriver is good at demystifying the disease and reassuring children that their doubts and fears are valid, but her on-camera appearances are taped in an unnaturally gauzy, infomercial light that clashes with the documentary’s candid, unsparing look at the realities of aging.
State-of-the art diagnostic tools and experimental treatments are explored Monday and Tuesday in “Momentum in Science,” a comprehensive look at the research currently under way, including tests to see whether drugs or vaccines can combat the buildup of amyloid, which many scientists now believe to be a lead culprit in ravaging the brain. The focus of the segment is on encouraging developments and promising prospects, not recent setbacks in clinical trials.
The zeal and dedication of researchers is inspiring, and so are the patients and caregivers who struggle with the disease everyday, but over all, “The Alzheimer’s Project” celebrates hope at the expense of caution. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us