One great characteristic about AI, the so-called artificial intelligence now enlisted broadly across the spectrum of working and living technologies: It can tell you things you may not want to hear without worrying about offending you or scaring the bejesus out of you because it just doesn't care.

For example, AI tells me that 720,000 Floridians are walking around with Alzheimer's this year, making the state No. 2 in the country for dementia afflictions. I'm disappointed. Usually, we're No. 1.

It also tells me that Miami-Dade County has the highest concentration of the brain-eating disease. And it tells me that Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death for Americans.

The information is pretty solid, apparently; AI may have gotten the numbers from an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Florida's College of Medicine, Stacey Alvarez-Alvarado, Ph.D., whose research focuses on age-related cognitive decline.

In a short summary of conditions she wrote for UF Health, the College of Medicine's digital newsletter, she cites those numbers too, pointing out that 4.5 million of our 23 million residents this year are 65 or older, after all. And she adds this: "Despite the daunting numbers, early diagnosis and intervention can make a significant difference. Alzheimer's disease progresses in stages. Identifying symptoms early allows individuals and families to better manage the condition."

Unfortunately, she adds, "many Florida residents remain unaware of the early signs, such as memory loss, confusion and difficulty completing familiar tasks -- or the importance of routine cognitive health screenings."

This makes me wonder: I've experienced confusion about nearly everything all my life, along with difficulty completing familiar tasks, like cleaning my room, washing my dishes or putting down the lid of the toilet seat. And memory loss? Oh yeah. Although, instead of losing it, I've been practicing just changing the memory, especially if I don't like it.

About one in 13 people in the nation between 65 and 85 are living with Alzheimer's, and one in every three people 85 and older. It's not the only kind of dementia, either.

Two things happened last week that excited my interest in this, neither of them involving my mother, 97, or my mother-in-law, 85, who live with my family and me. Both women have been diagnosed with this stuff and neither of them have lost their personalities or basic cognitive functions. Yet. To add to the fun, each is physically disabled, too.

Instead, a vividly bright family member who had just retired from a career requiring sparkling mental agility got hit with a diagnosis after doing what Professor Alvarez Alvarado advised and checking early for symptoms.

In addition, an investigative reporter for the journal Science, Charles Piller, placed a guest essay in The New York Times on Jan. 24 outlining the findings in his forthcoming book, "Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance and Tragedy in the Quest To Cure Alzheimer's." A significant and years-long direction of research into which billions have been poured, based on the published findings of one doctor in particular supported by others and by some research institutions, has been compromised by fraud, Piller reports.

Now what?

Before I share the single note of hope in Piller's essay, I want to point out what most readers here have probably long since learned: Dementia of any kind is just one more in a line of afflictions we live with all our lives, often beginning when we're young. Youth itself, for example -- call it puberty -- is a brain-altering, personality changing affliction of sorts. Unlike dementia, many of us get to outgrow it. But it kills some people.

Other people carry on with diseases or disabilities of one sort or another for years or decades while continually aspiring to live chock-a-block with periodic joy and satisfaction.

So, in effect, a diagnosis of dementia is just another thing. Living requires dealing with a lot of things. It does take work -- insistent, determined, sometimes difficult work that refuses to discount the rich value of a life that might also be saddled with dementia or any other affliction.

Family caregivers for dementia victims devote the predominant portion of more than 18 billion hours of care per year in the United States each year, the experts say -- much of it plain hard work.

But so what? Life can often be rich, with or without a disability, and in spite of the work, if you find a way to make it so. Much less frequently, it isn't. That's my view this week.

Here's what Piller offered, in addition to the bad news: "Most Alzheimer's scholars operate with determination and integrity, and there are many independent-minded scientists advancing our understanding of the brain and memory loss. Recently, alternatives to the amyloid hypothesis have begun to find support. Promising approaches include exploring the role of viruses in cognitive decline, treating brain infections and reducing brain inflammation -- potentially with GLP-1 drugs that have transformed weight loss. There's also growing evidence that healthy lifestyle choices, as well as controlling blood pressure and cholesterol, can slow the disease's progression.

"But widespread misconduct wastes time, steals precious resources and skews thinking by honest scientists. Meanwhile, the staggering scale of Alzheimer's grows year by year." |