Still Alice by Lisa Genova

1) This video was an educational and eye-opening documentary about the infamous Alzheimer’s Disease and its effects on the victim and their family. The film follows several different families, each directly affected by the disease, and how they cope with the loss of their, or a loved one’s, memories and mind. One such family, the Noonans, had a rare form of the disease, where its destruction of the mind began much earlier in life, around age fifty. Three of the Noonan siblings out of ten caught Alzheimer’s and none of the other seven knew whether they had the gene for it or not, passed on by their mother, who also died of this. Watching this unfold in the movie “The Forgetting” was rather eye-opening,

Suspecting that something is seriously wrong, and without the knowledge of her husband, John, Alice goes to see her doctor who refers her to a neurologist. After testing, Alice receives the stunning diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer 's. It is both numbing and terrifying for her. She is 50 years old. Alice struggles to tell John, who is a cancer cell biologist, because telling him will make it all "real". When she does, his reaction is almost cerebral and clinical. At first reluctant to believe her, John offers Alice no comfort. Instead he tells her he needs to find out more about Alzheimer 's.

“Scientists think that as many as 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease” (Soliz, 2006, pg. 13).

The theme of the book is related to the early onset Alzheimer’s disease and how the main character, Alice Howland’s quality of life or in other words her lifestyle is affected due to the disease she is diagnosed with (Genova, 2009). The novel sheds light on the lives of those

Alice’s story about her’s and her family’s struggle reaches to me because the disease takes away someone you love slowly. This book shows Alice losing parts of herself gradually until she is unrecognizable. However, Alice is still a person and should still be treated as one. The message this book sends across to its audience that, although taken by Alzheimer’s, Alice has emotions too and that part is not taken away from her.

Alzheimer’s disease was first diagnosed to be a medical condition back in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer. Dr. Alzheimer identified this mental illness after witnessing the mental decaying mind of a woman who experienced memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia that usually targets people over the age of 60.

Alzheimer's disease is a familiar sight to me. I had a sad experience during my work as a nurse in my country Colombia and Spain with Alzheimer disease patients. Day by day I came to know each patient’s story because every day they were living the moment without remember the last minute. This is also what happened to Lisa Genova’s novel Still Alice. The protagonists is a 50 year old woman, a very well organized, efficient, highly-educated, and smart Harvard professor, wife of a successful man, and the mother of three grown children, who has diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. People have learned about the progression of Alice’s disease through her reactions, so feeling what she feels- a

This screenplay follows the protagonist Alice Howland, who is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University. Alice Howland is later diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, which turns her world completely upside down; especially given her career and ambitious nature. She becomes unable to perform normal everyday activities, and struggles with the loss of her independence. Alice’s husband, John, who is a physician, attempts to act as a guide for her through this time, but it ultimately puts a strain on their relationship. John’s job offer to move to Boston does not help matters either, and it quickly becomes the last straw for the two of them. He soon moves to New York to take the job after Alice’s memory starts to decay at a faster rate. John and Alice have 3 children, Lydia, Anna, and Tom as well as a son-in-law, Charlie. They are introduced at the beginning of the screenplay, as they all gather to celebrate Alice’s 50th birthday at a restaurant. This is also the time in which the audience notices her decline in normal conversation as she is unable to follow smoothly. Alice could be considered the catalytic hero of this screenplay, and the disease being the antagonist. Alice wants to hold on to as much of her memory that she can, and slow the regression by writing down everything. By Act 3, Alice loses her ability to do activities that she had been doing for many years; such as going out for her morning run without getting lost, remembering words, phrases, and

Nearly 15 million Americans provide unpaid care to a person living with Alzheimerʼs disease or another dementia (Alzheimerʼs Association 2011 Facts & Figures). Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, and neuropathologist, is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia" in 1907, a condition that is now called Alzheimerʼs disease. Alzheimerʼs is the most common form of dementia in older adults. The terms "Alzheimerʼs" and "dementia" are often used interchangeably, but the conditions are not the same (Reed,

Alzheimer’s disease slowly steals a person’s dignity and erases precious memories. The “Alzheimer’s Disease Guide”, found on WebMD explains that tasks become more difficult to do often leading to confusion and behavior changes. The article further explains the progression of the disease also brings hardship to family and friends (1). To best cope with Alzheimer’s we must better understand the disease.

“Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a slowly progressive disease of the brain that is characterized by impairment of memory and eventually by disturbances in reasoning, planning, language, and perception.” (Howard Crystal) In Health 1000 we were asked to read the book Still Alice. I have never dealt with or have done any study on Alzheimer’s disease before reading this book. After finishing this book it has really opened my eyes to how bad of a disease and how it cripples the mind. I never imagined the effect of this disease on a patient and the patient family. This book is about a upper middle aged lady named Alice who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and how she and her family learn how to deal with disease. One of the things this book

The ability of doctors to diagnose the disease has improved in recent years, but a conclusive diagnosis can only be established when autopsy or brain biopsy shows that nerve cell loss has occurred in the parts of the brain associated with cognitive functioning. In 1906 a German physician named Alois Alzheimer describes the haunting case of Auguste D., a patient who had profound memory loss, unfounded suspicions about her family, and other worsening psychological changes. This was the first known case of Alzheimer’s disease. In 1910, Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist who worked with Dr. Alzheimer, first named "Alzheimer's Disease" in the eighth edition of his book called Psychiatrie. During 1976, Neurologist Robert Katzman identified Alzheimer's disease as the most common cause of

Alzheimer is a disease that affects the elderly most. The disease was discovered by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in the year 1906 when he was examining a female’s brain. He found out that the woman displayed memory loss, language problems and some inexplicable changes in behavior. The disease was named after the doctor who was a German psychiatrist and a neuropathologist. Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disorder that leads to memory loss, personality changes, and language problems (Gilbert & Julie 2). The disease is mostly diagnosed in people over the age of 65 years, though there is a small minority of people under the age of 50 who get the disease. Studies show that 1% of a whole population aged between the ages 65-75 have severe

Alzheimer's disease (AD, SDAT) or simply called Alzheimer's, which is the most common dementia. In 1906, the first German psychiatrist and neurologist, Alois Alzheimer, pointed out that the disease was incurable, degenerative and fatal. The disease is named after him. In 1901, Alois Alzheimer presented the case of a patient named Auguste D, 50 years old, who has suffered from memory loss. In the twentieth century, the term "Alzheimer's disease" is usually used to diagnose demented people who are around the aged of 45 to 65 (forgetful before getting old). Older people who are suffered from dementia are considered to be normal, due to the high age of "numbness". In the 1970s and 1985s, it has been founding out that losing-memory people of different ages had similar clinical symptoms. This disease usually occurs in people over 65 years of age. However, early Alzheimer's is not uncommon but it can occur sooner than expected. In 2006 there were 26.6 million people with Alzheimer's disease worldwide. Anticipated Alzheimer's rate in the world will be 1 in 85 by 2050.

The emotion evoking 2014, film titled Still Alice featured the many challenges a family residing in New York City faced following the matriarch’s, Alice Howland, diagnosis of a rare form of familial Alzheimer’s disease. The film opened with Alice and her Husband, John, celebrating Alice’s fiftieth birthday along with two of their three grown children, Anna and Tom, as well as their son-in-law, Anna’s husband, Charlie. The couple’s third child, Lydia, was not present at the birthday dinner, as she was aspiring to be an actress and resided in California. Within minutes of the opening scene Alice’s mild cognitive impairments became apparent through her marked confusion while communicating with Anna and Charlie. As the film progressed, Alice herself, a renowned doctor of linguistics and college professor, quickly became cognizant of her own declining cognitive ability as she struggled with mundane tasks, such as imparting a lecture at the University of California Los Angeles. The subsequent concerning episode, where Alice became disoriented and fearful in due course while out for a run on the campus where she had taught for years and was therefore familiar with it’s geography, ultimately encouraged her to seek care from a neurologist.