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full screen President Biden’s old age in focus this week. Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP/TT
Biden’s memory capacity has topped the headlines internationally this week.
The 81-year-old president has mixed up people and countries and retracted things he has said and done regarding the handling of classified documents.
– I cannot comment on Biden. But at the age of 80–85, it is likely that one has either Alzheimer’s changes or small vessel disease, or actually both, says Oskar Hansson, professor of neurology at Lund University with a focus on memory research.
He refers to numbers. 10–15 percent of all people between the ages of 80 and 85 have dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most common dementia, and begins with Alzheimer’s changes in the brain, with beta-amyloid and tau being the most common.
– At that age, as much as a third have beta-amyloid. And almost every fifth person gets tau, he says.
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– Considering how common brain diseases become with age, it’s no wonder that people are cautious when it comes to people between 80 and 85 who have to hold extremely tough positions.
– In the future, you can imagine that you will take a blood test to see if you have Alzheimer’s changes or not, he says and points out that pilots take tests.
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But even if the memory can be bad, which is a sign of Alzheimer’s, and one loses words, the ability to judge does not have to be affected. You can still make good decisions, he says.
TT: How do you think his memory works when he denies actions where evidence shows the opposite?
– It is very difficult to say. There may be a strategy behind it, you don’t know if it’s true or not. But there can also be several reasons why you are temporarily dizzy. It can be small vessel disease, Alzheimer’s changes, extreme workload, poor sleep.
– We’ll see if it sparks a debate. Trump will also be there soon.
He recalls that Reagan had severe Alzheimer’s.
– In surveys, they looked at his flow of words in speeches, among other things, and you could notice that he said fewer and fewer words at the end of his presidency. It was an early sign of Alzheimer’s. He became very demented later.
FACTS Dementia
Alzheimer’s: Most common dementia. Memory and language are affected. It becomes more difficult to find words and express yourself. Thinking and concentration are affected. Even the perception of time can change.
In Alzheimer’s disease, nerve cells in the brain’s memory center are destroyed when the harmful protein beta-amyloid is stored in the brain. Beta-amyloid also facilitates the spread of the toxic variant of the protein tau that is believed to be the cause of nerve cell death.
Vascular dementia: Second most common dementia. Memory and local sense are affected. More difficult to interpret sense impressions and more difficult to think. Difficulty with language, such as finding and pronouncing words. The movements become slower.
Vascular-related dementia is caused by the nerve cells in the brain not getting enough nutrients and oxygen. It only takes small impairments in blood flow for nerve cells to be destroyed.
Source: 1177, Lund University
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