10 Comments

"One of the questions they tackled was – is it cost-effective for primary care physicians to offer cognitive screenings like the SLUMS or MoCA indiscriminately to all community-dwelling older adults (say, 75 or older)?

It may surprise many of you – but the answer is no. " Rightly, it is NO!!! I experience years ago as a MS patient of 44 years old a cognitive test, named PASAT. It consists of a simple addition, but every 3 seconds, then 2 seconds you must memorize the result of the previous one to add to a new addition. I did not score well, I was furious. It impacted my self confidence, did not say much about my cognitive ability and was expensive.

The lady in the video is so self conscious to be tested for her "brain" capabilities that she is anxious. Her performance will be weakened like a child under the threatening eye of a demanding parent (although the analogy is no longer valid in 2023 when teachers are yelled at by parents because their angel did not get A).

Expand full comment

Such a good comment.

I know when I took my mother to her initial Neurology appointment, she was nervous. First because she was losing the ability to track weekly events, so no pathway for her to reach back and understand why we were there, without reminders. With that, she understood what being told you have dementia would mean...loss of driving (which became a huge issue0 as well as having her husband and I sitting there as she tried to answer the questions. I think it should have been done i:1 and then bring us in to explain the symptoms and their development, we'd seen on a daily basis.

Hell, I was praying the Neurologist wouldn't turn to me and say, do you remember the 3 words i gave her at the start of the conversation.

Expand full comment

Sadly I would not put it beyond the Biden team to eventually claim he just took and passed a cognitive test, even if it never really happened.

Expand full comment

If that’s the case - then we are basically under rule by a junta at this point. Which is a feature of so-called “banana republics.”

Expand full comment

we like to say (my friends from the spectator magazine) that Biden does not run the show, Obama had said he would have loved a 3rd term but without the official obligations, basically relax in his PJ. BUT! What do we know? we ignorant souls who live on the other side of the pond, where democracy is dying. Who could have imagined Sweden in daily violence, mortar shootings in France, millions! of muslims against Israel, (well jews) in the UK, Spain and Portugal with africans on their shores every day, The Netherlands and Belgium a narco state? these past 10 years have seen the strange death of Europe as my friend Douglas Murray wrote.

Expand full comment

Very informative article, I admire the fact that unlike most journalists, you document, include notes and related articles and videos. You add you touch of humour in pertinent homeopahic dose, a rare quality. Thank you, Merci!

Expand full comment

Great article! Thank you for this! Not just with Joe Biden but for those of us with aging parents.

Expand full comment

Absolutely

Expand full comment

Great post.

There are many of us with diagnosed parents that recognize the same daily symptoms in Biden as our loved ones. I do agree that arm chair diagnosis is fool hardy, but it only points to the need for a legislated testing requirement for those in these positions. It is clear that there is some cognitive crisis going on there, which should be justification enough to mandate testing. If it looks, acts and walks like a mentally impaired duck, then chances are good it's a mentally impaired duck.

At the very least those covering up, whatever the impairment is, are walking the fine line off treason.

Agreed about the blanket testing of aging populations. The confirmation bias would quickly take over and lead to a multitude of misdiagnosis. I saw that when i was in the military, where well meaning Flight Docs and even Specialty Docs assumed an ache or pain was a strain, sprain or a complaint best treated with ibuprofen..

To your comment about being in a banana republic, we are there. The amount of collusion and criminality within the executive and judicial branches being foisted on a opposition candidate and then being covered up by the captured national media outlets should be proof enough of that, no matter what you think of Trump.

I appreciate you are taking the time to post your material. It is a help to all of us out here digging through the piles of information on many of these cognitive diseases.

Expand full comment

The 10 warning signs of dementia are a good starting point. However, reading them, we all experience one or two, or more of these signs at one point in life, tired, confused, forgetting the name of a friend, etc... . In situation of performance such as the role of a president of a nation in. a press conference under the public eye scrutiny, we tend to out perform. On stage, with customers and journalists I am VERY bright, then back home, I am lazy, and do not remember my daughter's boyfriend's name. Thank you for your invaluable work! Merci

Expand full comment