Rebroadcast: His father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He went looking for answers.
May 2, 2024
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Cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar shares his journey of caring for his father with Alzheimer's, highlighting the emotional challenges and advancements in treatment. The podcast delves into the complexities of caregiving, new drugs like Canabap, and the concept of dementia villages. It also touches on the importance of empathy in doctor-patient relationships and the emotional aspects of caring for loved ones with dementia.
Alzheimer's disease starts with memory loss in the hippocampus and progresses to emotional imbalance and loss of self-awareness.
Caregivers of Alzheimer's patients face challenges in decision-making, truth-telling, and maintaining dignity, emphasizing the need for better support systems and a humanistic approach in elder care.
Deep dives
Challenges of Alzheimer's Disease
The podcast delves into the story of Sandeep Jahar's father, who faced Alzheimer's disease, highlighting the struggles and changes noticed by Sandeep regarding his father's memory loss, shift in behavior, and the impact on family dynamics. Sandeep describes the challenges of caring for a parent with Alzheimer's and reflects on the lack of understanding of the disease despite his medical background.
Impact on the Brain and Alzheimer's Progression
The episode explains how Alzheimer's disease affects the brain, starting with memory loss in the hippocampus and progressing to emotional imbalance and loss of self-awareness. Despite the cognitive decline, patients may retain muscle memory while losing episodic memory. Sandeep shares insights on the brain's meta-functions and deterioration stages in Alzheimer's patients.
Caregiving and End-of-Life Decisions
The podcast emphasizes the emotional and practical challenges of caregiving for Alzheimer's patients, addressing the complexities faced by caregivers in terms of decision-making, truth-telling, and maintaining dignity. Sandeep candidly discusses the difficulties in caregiving, highlighting the need for better support systems and a more humanistic approach in elder care, especially during the end-of-life stages.
Around 2013, author and cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar started noticing some worrying changes in his father. He would forget the code to their safe; he couldn’t remember what he did the day before and would get lost driving home. Eventually, his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In his new book, My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s, Jauhar chronicles the challenges of caring for a sick parent and explains where medicine is today when it comes to treatment for this incurable illness.
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