Redefining Alzheimer's Disease: A Podcast with Heather Whitson, Jason Karlawish, Lon Schneider
episode
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast
51 min
4 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 8 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the current clinical definition of Alzheimer’s disease?
Welcome to the Jared Pal podcast. This is Eric Quadero.
This is Alex Smith. And Alex, we had a little
hiatus, but we're
back. We're back. We have vacationed. Been to London. I've been to Kuwait. Life's good. Back in studio.
And I have been eagerly awaiting this podcast. But before we go to the topic, who do we have with us today?
We have an all-star cast. We have Heather Whitson, who's a geriatrician and professor of medicine at Duke and director of the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and co-leader of the Duke UNC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Heather, welcome to the JerryPow podcast.
Thank you for having me and thanks for covering this topic.
And we're delighted to welcome back Jason Carlowish, who j who's a geriatrician and professor of medicine at Penn and director of the Penn Memory Center. He's been on several podcasts about this issue. Jason, welcome back to JerryPal.
Great to be back. Alex and Eric. Hi.
And we have Lon Schneider, who is professor of psychiatry, neurology, and gerontology at USC and director of the California Alzheimer's Disease Center. Welcome, Lon, to JerryPal. Thank you.
So we're gonna be talking about redefining Alzheimer's disease. But before we go into that topic, Heather, I think you have a song request.
I'm requesting the song Don't You Forget About Me. Uh, which is one of the things that I think uh matters most to patients and families living with Alzheimer's disease.
Wonderful.
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Won't you come see about me? I'll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby. Tell me your troubles and doubts, giving me everything inside and out and out. Love strange, surreal in the dark. Think of the tender things that we were working on. Slow change may pull us apart. When the light gets into your heart, baby, don't you? Forget about me. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't you forget about me. Assella la la la la la la la. La la la la la la la la la la When you walk on by La la la la Will you call my name?
bit of an irony there that it's Simple minds is the band. Good point. Oh well. Yeah.
So we got a big topic. We're gonna be talking about redefining Alzheimer's disease and a push to move from a you know clinical syndrome to a biological definition. There's a lot been going on in the last six months with the NIA and the AAA putting out draft recommendations. about this issue, but I wonder if even before we talk about how do we redefine Alzheimer disease, maybe we could just chat briefly about how is it currently defined. Just to let you know, I did look it up today uh as a geriatrician, you'd imagine I'd know, but I decided I'm gonna go to the CDC website. They say Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. It's a progressive disease beginning with mild memory loss and possible leading to loss of ability to carry on conversations, blah, blah, blah.
Alzheimer's Association says Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking, and behavior. I'm gonna turn to you, Jason. How do we currently define also again, those are for lay public definitions.
Yeah, one word and only one word there is is driving me nuts and that's type. And I know everyone talks about Alzheimer's as a quote type of dementia. I I would say Alzheimer's is a cause of dementia, just like Louis body disease is a cause of dementia, just like progressive supernuclear palsy is a cause of dementia, syphilis and its tertiary state. And I guess what I'm getting at is that there's this disease that can cause dementia and one of them is Alzheimer's. I haven't exactly answered your question, but the reason why I'm hanging up on that word type is it's getting us back to eighties, nineteen eighties, a la the music we just heard. Uh nineteen eighties nomenclature that to have Alzheimer's you had dementia, and the two were sort of intermeshed even to the point
In the eighties, the thought was all dementia is Alzheimer's or it's some medical illness or combination of other stuff that's not about it. And I think we've moved far away from this idea that to have d you have to have dementia to have Alzheimer's
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the current clinical definition of Alzheimer’s disease?
0:00–6:02
2
Why are experts pushing for a biological (amyloid‑based) definition?
6:02–12:53
3
How do amyloid and tau biomarkers change the way we label asymptomatic people?
12:53–20:12
4
What are the potential harms and benefits of labeling biomarker‑positive individuals as having Alzheimer’s?
20:12–25:44
5
Who is influencing the new diagnostic criteria and why does conflict of interest matter?
25:44–31:27
6
How might new definitions affect public‑health policy and disease prevalence statistics?
31:27–37:12
7
What emerging biomarkers (e.g., neurofilament light, GFAP) could complement amyloid testing?
37:12–44:15
8
What do the experts envision for the future of Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment?
44:15–51:30
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast
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