Did Ronald Reagan have Alzheimers while in office?

[applecorped]

Ron Reagan claims that his father had alzheimers while in office:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/wa...an-son-claims-dad-had-alzheimers-as-president

"It was announced in 1994. While it prompted some to suggest they knew Reagan had the disease as president, his four White House doctors said they saw no evidence of it. But Ron, who became a liberal and atheist, disappointing his dad, suggests he saw hints of confusion and "an out-of-touch president" during the 1984 campaign and again in 1986, when his father couldn't recall the names of California canyons he was flying over."


But some doctors disagree:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E0DE133DF936A35753C1A961958260

"But even with the hindsight of Mr. Reagan's diagnosis, his four main White House doctors say they never detected any evidence that his forgetfulness was more than just that. His mental competence in office, they said in a series of recent interviews, was never in doubt. Indeed, they pointed out, tests of his mental status did not begin to show evidence of the disease until the summer of 1993, more than four years after he left the White House. "

I wonder if Ron Reagan is publishing a book.

Oh, wait:

"Ron Reagan won't talk about his book until its release, says his publisher Viking. The publisher also didn't provide documents backing up the San Diego operation claim."

 

[Meadmaker]

People with alzheimer's disease don't suddenly wake up one day and suddenly are changed. I don't know if there's some specific point where a diagnosis suddenly turns positive. I watched it develop in my father in law. One year, he would tell the same stories a couple of times. The next year it was every time you saw him. The next year, it's twice in the same day. The other symptoms, forgetfulness, went along the same path.

Some times, he couldn't remember things, but I knew that we were in trouble when one day we were sitting in the local Temple, a building he did not visit regularly, but certainly was in 1 or 2 times per year since some time in the 1970s, and he asked where we were. A few minutes later, he remembered. Did he "have alzheimer's" at that point?

I think Reagan was like that at least in the last two years of his office. Did he "have alzheimer's"? Maybe not, but you knew he would if he lived long enough. He was certainly acting confused during public appearances a lot more frequently than he had when he was elected President.

 

[theprestige]

"... couldn't recall the names of the California canyons he was flying over"?

Well, color me Alzheimer's, then, because I grew up in this state, studied California for my grade-school state history requirement, and I too cannot recall the names of any California canyons except maybe Topanga, and I wouldn't recognize it if I were walking down it.

 

[elbe]

It's possible, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be operational. My grandfather had alzheimer's for years before the extended family found out. My grandmother was the only person who noticed the memory failures by being with him all the time. It'd probably be best to ask his wife if she noticed the early signs.

 

[ponderingturtle]

"... couldn't recall the names of the California canyons he was flying over"?

Well, color me Alzheimer's, then, because I grew up in this state, studied California for my grade-school state history requirement, and I too cannot recall the names of any California canyons except maybe Topanga, and I wouldn't recognize it if I were walking down it.

This all depends on what his memory and knowledge of canyons was like before that.

 

[mhaze]

So I have to ask the obvious:

Which would one pick, a possibly senile Reagan or the current administration's clowns of insanity?

 

[ponderingturtle]

So I have to ask the obvious:

Which would one pick, a possibly senile Reagan or the current administration's clowns of insanity?

Zombie Harry Truman.

 

[Schrodinger's Cat]

Alzheimer's runs in my family. Some of my relatives have progressed very quickly, but others have developed it much more slowly. For one great aunt in particular I was very close to, her disease progressed very slowly at first, and also memory loss and some amount of personality/behavioral change is a normal part of the aging process. When she was finally diagnosed with Alzheimer's, no one could agree on how long she'd had it for. We could remember her forgetting things, names, acting a little differently...but at the same time, we had relatives of comparable ages who did not have Alzheimer's who also had forgotten things and had changed in behavior as well.

So, personally, I can see there being disagreement over when the Alzheimer's started. On the one hand, if his symptoms did start that early, a family member intimately familiar with his behavior and who is around him a lot would be more likely to notice it than a doctor with limited contact and knowledge of the patient's personality would. On the other hand, changes in behavior and blips in memory from Reagan could easily have been due to normal aging coupled with stress from his position, and misinterpreted by his son as early signs of Alzheimer's.

 

[angrysoba]

So I have to ask the obvious:

Which would one pick, a possibly senile Reagan or the current administration's clowns of insanity?

If you throw in the really small car for all the clowns to drive around in then I'll take the latter.

 

[Cainkane1]

Ron Reagan claims that his father had alzheimers while in office:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/wa...an-son-claims-dad-had-alzheimers-as-president

"It was announced in 1994. While it prompted some to suggest they knew Reagan had the disease as president, his four White House doctors said they saw no evidence of it. But Ron, who became a liberal and atheist, disappointing his dad, suggests he saw hints of confusion and "an out-of-touch president" during the 1984 campaign and again in 1986, when his father couldn't recall the names of California canyons he was flying over."


But some doctors disagree:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E0DE133DF936A35753C1A961958260

"But even with the hindsight of Mr. Reagan's diagnosis, his four main White House doctors say they never detected any evidence that his forgetfulness was more than just that. His mental competence in office, they said in a series of recent interviews, was never in doubt. Indeed, they pointed out, tests of his mental status did not begin to show evidence of the disease until the summer of 1993, more than four years after he left the White House. "

I wonder if Ron Reagan is publishing a book.

Oh, wait:

"Ron Reagan won't talk about his book until its release, says his publisher Viking. The publisher also didn't provide documents backing up the San Diego operation claim."

I think he did have alzheimers disease. He forgot things he said and Jimmy Carter tried unsuccessfully to capitolize on it

 

[elbe]

I think he did have alzheimers disease. He forgot things he said and Jimmy Carter tried unsuccessfully to capitolize on it

Doesn't that assume a strong memory in the first place? Who's to say he didn't always have things slip through?

 

[Darat]

I remember seeing some footage that tracked Reagan over the years of his presidency and there did seem to be quite a deterioration in his ability not only as an orator but also how he handled non-scripted question and answers. Of course that type of evidence is hardly conclusive and from watching world leaders I would say their jobs are very stressful and that certainly shows when they've been in power for a few years.

 

[joobz]

So, personally, I can see there being disagreement over when the Alzheimer's started. On the one hand, if his symptoms did start that early, a family member intimately familiar with his behavior and who is around him a lot would be more likely to notice it than a doctor with limited contact and knowledge of the patient's personality would. On the other hand, changes in behavior and blips in memory from Reagan could easily have been due to normal aging coupled with stress from his position, and misinterpreted by his son as early signs of Alzheimer's.

This is probably closer to the reality of the situation.
From what I understand of Alzheimer's, it's a disease the is neurologically developing long before the first symptoms appear. So, My guess is Yes, he had it in office. The major issue isn't if he had the disease. It is whether it was severe enough to detrimentally impact his performance as president.


Considering that no one here seems to be sure if he had Alzheimer's or not during office suggest that NO, it didn't negatively impact his performance as president.

Fact is it's a horrible disease that slowly robs a person's life and personality. The idea that he served two terms of it is simply horrible. Oh, and Alzheimer's is really bad too.

 

[zooterkin]

So I have to ask the obvious:

Which would one pick, a possibly senile Reagan or the current administration's clowns of insanity?

You're a couple of years late with that comment, surely?

 

[I Ratant]

You're a couple of years late with that comment, surely?

.
That's fer shure!

 

[Cactus Wren]

Ron Reagan claims that his father had alzheimers while in office:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/wa...an-son-claims-dad-had-alzheimers-as-president

"It was announced in 1994. While it prompted some to suggest they knew Reagan had the disease as president, his four White House doctors said they saw no evidence of it. But Ron, who became a liberal and atheist, disappointing his dad, suggests he saw hints of confusion and "an out-of-touch president" during the 1984 campaign and again in 1986, when his father couldn't recall the names of California canyons he was flying over."


But some doctors disagree:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E0DE133DF936A35753C1A961958260

"But even with the hindsight of Mr. Reagan's diagnosis, his four main White House doctors say they never detected any evidence that his forgetfulness was more than just that. His mental competence in office, they said in a series of recent interviews, was never in doubt. Indeed, they pointed out, tests of his mental status did not begin to show evidence of the disease until the summer of 1993, more than four years after he left the White House. "

I wonder if Ron Reagan is publishing a book.

Oh, wait:

"Ron Reagan won't talk about his book until its release, says his publisher Viking. The publisher also didn't provide documents backing up the San Diego operation claim."

I have to admire the way you put the Ron Reagan quote and link at the top, then the New York Times link, with the link "But some doctors disagree" connecting the two -- implying that the second quote (from 1997) is a response to the first (from yesterday).

 

[MaGZ]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Regan had a tendency to make things up which he believed to be true such as his Holocaust story. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard60.html[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The degree to which Reagan is out of touch with reality was best demonstrated in his concentration camp story. This was not simply a slip of the tongue, a Bushian confusion of December with September. When the Premier of Israel visited Reagan at the White House, the President went on and on for three quarters of an hour explaining why he was pro-Jewish: it was because, being in the Signal Corps in World War II, he visited Buchenwald shortly after the Nazi defeat and helped to take films of that camp. Reagan repeated this story the following day to an Israeli ambassador. But the truth was 180-degrees different; Reagan was not in Europe; he never saw a concentration camp; he spent the entire war in the safety of Hollywood, making films for the armed forces. [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]​

[/FONT]

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

You're a couple of years late with that comment, surely?

 

[Rrose Selavy]

Ron Reagan claims that his father had alzheimers while in office:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/wa...an-son-claims-dad-had-alzheimers-as-president

"It was announced in 1994. While it prompted some to suggest they knew Reagan had the disease as president, his four White House doctors said they saw no evidence of it. But Ron, who became a liberal and atheist, disappointing his dad, suggests he saw hints of confusion and "an out-of-touch president" during the 1984 campaign and again in 1986, when his father couldn't recall the names of California canyons he was flying over."

"

This really is not a very good example , my understanding is that in the earlier stages it is short term /recent (not long term) memory that is affected first so forgetting the names of something learnt in youth or years ago is not a good example to use.

 

[elbe]

This really is not a very good example , my understanding is that in the earlier stages it is short term /recent (not long term) memory that is affected first so forgetting the names of something learnt in youth or years ago is not a good example to use.

I believe that even moderate alzheimer's patients still retain their long term memory, it's just that new memories aren't being moved to long term storage. My grandpa would forget where he was several times in an hour but he could still recall stories from his childhood.

I would think that forgetting names from one's youth is a problem that many (most?) people suffer as they age.