Alzheimer's

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The need to better understand, treat and even prevent diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s grows increasingly urgent as Canada’s population ages. In this conclusion of her two-part series on the University of Toronto’s world renowned Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, writer Niamh McGarry looks at how U of T scientists are leading the way.

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When we talk about Alzheimer’s disease, what kind of story are we telling?

A horror story, at least here in contemporary North America, says Marlene Goldman.

“The media’s take on Alzheimer’s is very Gothic and apocaplytic,” she says, a story of the slow loss of mind and self. “The typical presentation is: we have a huge baby boomer population and they’ll be turning 65. In the media’s view, they’ll be zombies.  And we’ll have to pay for them.”

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Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto have found that people who speak more than one language don’t exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease until they have twice as much brain damage as unilingual people. It's the first physical evidence that bilingualism delays the onset of the disease.