The First-Ever Alzheimer's Patient

In 1901, the Frankfurt Asylum had among its many anonymous patients a woman who left her name to posterity. Her name was Auguste Deter, and she was in her early 50s. She was unaware of the historical significance of her illness. She was no longer aware of many things. Her husband said Auguste spent whole nights moaning and screaming: “I feel lost...”

Alois Alzheimer

One of the doctors at the institution was named Alois Alzheimer, a studious and methodical Bavarian with a marked fondness for everything related to brain tissue. Dr. Alzheimer was interested in Auguste’s psychological and intellectual disintegration. When she died in 1906, Alzheimer examined her brain and noticed protein deposits in the form of plaques and tangles, which he identified as the cause of Auguste’s cognitive decline. It is interesting to note that only 42 papers on Alzheimer’s disease could be found in the Medline database in 1975, and Alzheimer’s wasn’t even mentioned in the London Times until 1981, when it stated that Rita Hayworth, the famous American actress, had contracted the disease, “described as a quickly deteriorating form of senility.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, which means that the sufferer gradually loses their intellectual faculties, such as memory, the ability to formulate thoughts, or even the motor coordination necessary to be able to do up the buttons of a jacket. By far, the most important risk factor for dementia is age. Being alive is dangerous for our health, and the longer we live, the more likely it is that we will develop all sorts of ailments, including dementia.

Peace in later life

Our life expectancy has increased greatly in recent generations, but the extension of our existence has been concentrated on the beginning and end of our life span. We no longer die a few months after retirement, as we used to. Sometimes, against the odds, the last stage of life is the best because one no longer has responsibilities or a need to prove anything to anyone. Finding happiness in old age remains a challenge, accompanied as it often is by health issues and other difficulties, but not infrequently, old age ends up being more peaceful than other stages in life.

Erik Erikson described eight stages in life, the last of which he formulated as “integrity versus despair.” Dementia is a major threat to the relative happiness that we may encounter in old age. The German writer Jean Paul said that memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be expelled, but the patient with dementia is exiled from his own memories.

If dementia does set in, those memories that were fixed in the brain a long time ago and those that carry a significant emotional charge (war memories, birth of the first child) are much more stable than those acquired more recently. What has been learned and practiced over many years, such as activities related to one’s profession, often takes longer to lose in dementia.

The healthy brain

Unfortunately, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, although some new and potentially exciting treatments are being developed at the moment. It is important to lead an active life and not stay isolated. It is often said that the brain is like a muscle that needs exercise and that keeping the brain active is the best way to avoid dementia. The truth is that this has yet to be proven conclusively, although a good level of education seems to have a certain protective role against dementia. The more knowledge we acquire, the longer it takes to lose it.

It is also important to take care of our brain’s arteries, which have the crucial job of carrying blood and its precious oxygen to our brain tissue. To this end, we must make sure that our blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol are not too high.

Most Alzheimer’s patients are much older than Auguste and have reached, or exceeded, their average life expectancy when the illness strikes, so the end of their days usually comes through very common problems, perhaps not directly related to their dementia, such as a heart attack or pneumonia. We don’t know what killed Dr. Alzheimer, but we do know that his scientific eminence didn’t help him reach an old age. Death came to him when he was only 52, the same age as his patient, Auguste.