Stopping by the Nursing Home on a Sunny Morning
She was my shelter from a storm
A home away from home
My blanket I would never outgrow
Just one embrace and I would know
That this too shall pass, and I could face
My toughest enemy in every race
But now she is a shadow of her younger self
a withering flower in a forgotten glass vase
I tell myself that this too shall pass but I
don’t know what lies on the other side of the glass
door when I am in the nursing home Alzheimer’s ward
She won’t see me nor remember the lives we had
Once a beauty queen, she lent me pearls and scarves
I see her pale blue gown, spotted skin and IV scars
She used to bake pecan pies and macaroons
When she walked by the room would smell of jasmine
The unspooled yarn in a basket under the bed
is another sweater that will never be made
“It’s Ally,” I whisper to the one who named me
The youngest in our clan, once her favorite grandbaby
Her eyes are fixed on a picture frame of us and an old Great Dane
His mind was gone before his body left
He has the same droopy eyes as her and a dejected look
The last photograph in our home my daddy took
I hold Grandmother’s hands that tremble like a leaf about to fall
She hasn’t shut me out, not yet, not completely, not at all
But I see the hollowness in her eyes, the windows about to close
Does her mind not know the love that her heart, I hope, knows?
If love is lost with memory, who is she to me
If only my love and memory stay, for now, will it be
What can beagles teach us about Alzheimer’s disease?
This passage is adapted from the article “What can beagles teach us about Alzheimer’s disease?” by Elizabeth Head (©2015 Elizabeth Head).
Every 67 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and new estimates suggest that it may be the third leading cause of death for older people. Alzheimer’s disease is associated with memory loss in older people that becomes severe enough over time to interfere with normal daily functions. Other signs of Alzheimer’s include changes in the ability to communicate, losses in language, decreased ability to focus and to pay attention, impairments in judgment, and other behavioral changes.
People with Alzheimer’s disease experience changes in their brains, which we can see in autopsies. Over the course of the disease, clumps of protein (called senile plaques) and tangles in neurons (called neurofibrillary tangles) accumulate. These plaques and tangles interfere with how the brain works and disrupt connections that are important for intact learning and memory ability.
The majority of studies to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s disease use mice that are genetically modified to produce human proteins with mutations. But these mutations are usually present in less than 5% of people with Alzheimer’s disease. This limitation can make it difficult to translate benefits of a treatment tested in mouse studies to people. However, there are several animals, including dogs, that naturally develop human-like brain changes that look much like Alzheimer’s disease.
Old dogs may teach us a great deal about aging. As dogs get older, some develop learning and memory problems, much like we do. And like people, not all old dogs become impaired. Indeed, some old dogs remain bright and able to learn just as well as younger dogs, although they may be a little slower in reaching high levels of performance.
When aged dogs show cognitive changes not caused by other systemic illnesses, they are related to brain changes that are strikingly similar to people’s. For example, old dogs develop senile plaques in their brains that are made of a protein that is identical to one that humans produce. This protein, called beta-amyloid, is toxic to cells in the brain. Unlike mice and rats, old dogs naturally develop significant brain pathology like we see in people. In this way, aging dogs may resemble aging humans in a more natural or realistic way than mice with genetic mutations.
Dogs may be very well suited to help us understand how different lifestyle factors help our brains as we get older. Our lab initially began studying beagles in the early 1990s, as there was interest in developing a drug to treat “dog dementia” based on pet owners’ observations of changes in behavior in their older dogs. At that time, little was known about learning and memory changes in aging dogs (beagles over eight years of age) and our earliest research was designed to find ways to systematically measure these changes.
The first step in doing this was to teach dogs to look at different objects (for example a Lego block or a toy truck) and learn that one of the two always hid a food reward. When we switched the food reward to the object that was previously not rewarded, older dogs kept choosing the wrong object. Young dogs very quickly switched over to the new object.
When we counted the number of errors dogs make to learn the problem, old dogs made many more errors overall. Interestingly, not all old dogs were impaired. Another subset of old dogs showed significant losses in their ability to remember information and some showed changes in their ability to be “flexible” in changing behaviors.
This is very similar to people. Not everyone ages in the same way—some people remain sharp as tacks well into their older years. After measuring learning and memory changes in dogs, we next studied the brain changes that were most strongly linked to these cognitive losses. We found that senile plaques in the brains of old dogs were more frequent in the animals that had learning and memory problems. In our more recent studies, we have been seeking ways to improve brain health in old dogs with the hope that these approaches can translate to healthy aging in people.
For instance, in several studies of aging in beagles, we have found that a diet rich in antioxidants that includes vitamins E and C, and importantly, fruits and vegetables, can lead to wonderful benefits in learning and memory ability that can be maintained for years. Dogs that had trouble remembering where they had seen a food reward (this is an example of spatial memory) showed significant improvements in their memory over time when following this diet. Also, old dogs showed rapid improvements in their ability to modify their behaviors (an example of enhanced executive function) when the rules had changed in the task they were learning. In addition, providing dogs with physical exercise, social enrichment, and “brain games,” like the food reward game, can also significantly improve cognition as they get older.
If we take these factors into account, we may be able to engage in strategies and lifestyle changes that will be good for both species. If we participate in exercise, social interaction, and learning new tricks with our aged companion animals, the benefits will be twofold: for them and for us.
Question
Which characteristic of memory loss is BEST supported by the information in “What can beagles teach us about Alzheimer’s disease?” and reinforced through description in the poem?
Responses
A Memory loss causes older people to be disliked and abandoned.Memory loss causes older people to be disliked and abandoned.
B Alzheimer’s patients show a decreased ability to focus and to pay attention.Alzheimer’s patients show a decreased ability to focus and to pay attention.
C Trembling limbs is a sign often associated with memory loss in old people.Trembling limbs is a sign often associated with memory loss in old people.
D Depression and dejected appearance often indicate the onset of Alzheimer’s.