Question:
People who have early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) could be morecapable of learning than previously thought, according to two newstudies supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a part ofthe National Institutes of Health. The promising studies suggest thatsome people with early cognitive impairment can still be taught torecall important information and to better perform daily tasks.

What's your opinions on this???

Answer: I'm surprised that this is considered a significant finding inmid-2004.

I worked with a patient in the early 1990s who was suffering from acombination of Alzheimer's disease, multi-infarct dementia, andstenosis of the cerebral arteries, all of which were classified by hisattending neurologist, based on a histological examination performedon the patient's brain after his death, as "severe". He had begunshowing clearly noticeable signs of dementia as early as 1987 (thoughprecursory signs had appeared several years before that), and by 1993,his condition had progressed to the point where he was not onlytotally unable to speak, but literally could not make a sound with hisvocal cords. After administration of speech and other therapies, hisability to communicate using a limited vocabulary of single words wasrestored and remained until his death in 1995 from a myocardialinfarction.

If significant learning could be achieved with a patient who wassuffering from advanced Alzheimer's and multi-infarct dementia, it ishardly surprising that learning can be achieved with patients who areonly in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.