What is “Early Onset” Dementia?
Recently, San Diego residents learned the sad news that a much appreciated former coach of the Chargers football team, Marty Schottenheimer, age 73, has Alzheimer’s Disease. The article I read called it “early onset Alzheimer’s.” Apparently the original diagnosis was made in 2011, when retired Coach Schottennheimer was approximately age 68. Our wishes to “Coach Marty” and his family.
It is, perhaps, also appropriate to point out that “early onset dementia” is different than than “early diagnosis of dementia.” Medical experts typically refer to early onset dementia (sometimes EOAD for Alzheimer’s type dementia) only for individuals age 65 or younger, often in a person’s 50s, or even earlier.
As an example from the sports world, legendary University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach, Pat Summitt, publicly revealed her diagnosis of “dementia, Alzheimer’s type,” in 2011, at age 59. She continued as the head coach for another academic year, before electing to retire (with, in her words, a “small r”).
In the last chapter of her third book, Sum It Up, Pat wrote movingly about her final year of coaching and the impact of her diagnosis, also admitting that she had probably been functioning “well” with Alzheimer’s for about three years before she, with the help of her son, sought a diagnosis. She explains how the fact of her diagnosis also led them to explore treatments and management techniques they might otherwise have ignored.
As larger numbers of adults are living longer, I think we are hearing more frequently directly from persons in high positions about diagnoses of Alzheimer’s or other neurocognitive impairments. This is important, because when healthy-living sports heroes are affected, we are more likely to pay attention and seek answers for everyone. Whenever I see such news, even as I’m sad, I admire the courage of the speakers and am grateful for their candor. Seeing famous people continue to function, make realistic plans, and enjoy life is important for the “not-so-famous” too. Their public candor highlights the critical need for discovery of preventions and cures for everyone.
I suspect that when a member of the press — or the nonmedical public — refers to “early onset Alzheimer’s,” it is a reflection of hope, hope that any diagnosis at 70, 75, or even 80 must be unusual, rare, and therefore not a threat to “me” before some magically “older” age that is still far off, in the future.