{"product_id":"the-forgetting-understanding-alzheimers-a-biography-of-a-disease-9780002571746","title":"THE FORGETTING: UNDERSTANDING ALZHEIMER'S: A BIOGRAPHY OF A DISEASE.","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of the 2002 BMA Popular Medicine Book This is a haunting literary and scientific examination of Alzheimers disease and the race to find a cure. A truly remarkable book  the definitive work on Alzheimers  both in social and medical terms  The Forgetting is incisive  humane  never ponderous  full of dry humour and brilliantly written with quiet  unpretentious authority. As a layman with personal experience of caring for an Alzheimers sufferer I am well aware of the stages of the disease and its prognosis and ending. Shenk is excellent on all these  and in his reflections on memory and the individual  and the individuals response to the progress of the disease. I cant imagine a book on Alzheimers being better researched and understood  or presented with greater sympathy. John Bayley In 1906 Alois Alzheimer dissected and examined the cerebral cortex of Auguste Ds brain and became the first scientist in medical history to link a specific brain pathology to behavioural changes. The disease named after him  turns otherwise active and healthy people into living ghosts. It is a rare condition for those in their 40s and 50s but 10% of the 65 population suffers from it and 50% of the 85. It is longevitys revenge and as the baby boom generation drifts into its elderly years the number of Alzheimers victims is expected to quadruple  making it the fastest-growing disease in developed countries. As Adam Phillips writes in his foreword This remarkable book will radically change our notions of looking after people and our assumptions about independence. Out of fear of mortality we have idealised health and youth and competence. The Forgetting reminds us among many other things that there is more to life than that. Shenks history of Alzheimers is both poignant and scientific  grounded by the fundamental belief that memory forms the basis of our selves  our souls  and the meaning in our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651523371061,"sku":"ByrdShop_0002571749","price":276.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780002571746.jpg?v=1781835404","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-forgetting-understanding-alzheimers-a-biography-of-a-disease-9780002571746","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}