Hi Cheri, Love your forums! Best darn forums this side of any where! Informative, thought provoking, and always very well done. I just have to throw a monkey wrench in once in a while! LOL

Scott, I really was kidding. You know I get a huge kick out of our silliness in Larry's forum. I appreciate your praise of my forums. Throw all the monkey wrenches you want, but be sure to duck when I throw them back, lol. Cheri

Hello Cheri,

Advanced state of forgetfulness is in fact a scary thing. We can inject some humor and bravado into "forgetfulness" and even ascribe adjectives like premature, temporary, normal, to the word forgetfulness to make it less frightening, but the truth is it is a very scary, lonely and solitary place tl be for both the afflicted person  and anyone who loves him or her.

Thank you Cheri,  for calling our attention to this possibility (or is it eventuality for some) so that we can  prepare and arm ourselves and our loved ones with the tools and exercises (mental and physical) this early and  perhaps prevent or at least distance "forgetfulness" from our lives and of those we love. 

China T.

Hi Cheri, LOL, if you remember from Larry's forums, I'm a good ducker! Really, great forums!

China, Thanks for calling us back to the main theme, here. Indeed, humor can be a way to ward off fear, and in no way would I ever want to diminish the seriousness of an illness such as Alzheimers or senile dementia. I don't think I've ever been more heartbroken than I was the day that my beloved grandfather told my children they could call him Ralph. I said to them, yes, his name is Ralph, but you should call him Granddad. I hadn't seen him for a few months as we had moved to the East coast, and in that time he had begun having mini-strokes, which took his memory. What he said next is what broke my heart. He said, 'I do have grandchildren, but I don't know where they are.' It was all I could do not to burst into tears, and it still saddens me to think of it more than twenty years later. So, let us distinguish between the transient forgetfulness brought on by overload, stress, or simply not exercising our minds to pay attention, and the more serious type brought on by all the different disease and other factors we have mentioned in this conversation. The former can certainly be improved upon, and fortunately science is making progress on the latter. Great strides are being made in Alzheimers research, despite the fact that it is seriously underfunded compared to the ratios of the problem. AARP recently published a graph showing current funding for research on potentially fatal diseases. According to their figures, Alzheimers receives a little over $10,000 per fatality (I presume per year), compared to over $212,000 per fatality for HIV/AIDS. Proposed budget cuts create an even greater disparity. Considering the demographics, i.e. the baby boomer generation gradually shifting the average age of the population upwards, I find it very frightening that Alzheimers affects over half of the population over age 85, and 5% of those 65-74, yet is receiving so little in funding. If you'd like to read the whole story, find it here: http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/prescription/nih_budget.html Obviously, it is up to us to follow the latest in healthcare advice to protect our brains from deterioration, whether real or imagined. Cheri