‘Not the end of life’: She’s battling early-onset dementia with new tools

ATLANTA, Ga. (InvestigateTV) - Controlling your movements, shaping your personality, storing your memory. The brain is powerful, but as we age those calls don’t communicate the way they used to.

When those changes happen before the age of 65 and a person can’t live or work independently, it can lead doctors to diagnose early-onset dementia.

Andrea Lucas keeps a pill box in her home, surrounded by pictures and memorabilia celebrating her father, Bill Lucas, who was the first Black general manager for the Atlanta Braves.

The 61-year-old never needed medicine before and said she hates pills. But now, Lucas manages multiple medications after being diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, or early-onset dementia.

In Georgia, Lucas is one of at least 385,000 people reported to have a form of cognitive impairment, according to Georgia Memory Net.

The first signs came three years ago. She would miss little things, or someone would tell her she kept repeating herself. Minor issues grew into major problems.

“I did engineering; I did all these different things,” Lucas said. “I created all these different projects and all of a sudden to feel as if I couldn’t do it as I did it beforehand, that I wasn’t quite as sharp as I was. It was a little devastating.”

The diagnosis feels ironic for Lucas. Her elderly mother still has perfect memory. Her late father had a photographic one.

The diagnosis brought loss. Lucas said she grieved who she was. She took early retirement after noticing she wasn’t quite herself in conversations.

She even lost access to her bank account after employees learned she was impaired. She was required to appoint a power of attorney to handle her funds.

“I was in a place of darkness and depression for a while; to have someone take, in the blink of an eye, everything you’ve worked for throughout your career,” Lucas said.

But life looks different for Lucas now. The turning point came through a six-month program at Emory’s Brain Health Center and its Cognitive Empowerment Program (CEP), which is a research and therapeutic solution focused on five areas for early-onset dementia patients:

• physical activity like yoga and cardio;
• cognitive training to keep the mind busy;
• functional independence like home and personal safety;
• coping; and
• the MIND diet of healthy foods.

Early outcomes show promise, according to Program Director Amy Rodriguez.

“Our outcomes so far are showing when in the time people are with us, within that year or up to a year, their cognition is stable and their functioning is stable or improving,” Rodriguez said.

A state report projected dementia in Georgia would increase 26.7% from 2020 to 2025. With figures like that, Rodriguez and her team argue the program does not have to be unique. They are advocating for more facilities like it across the state.

“That’s exactly what’s needed, access to programs like these is very limited and people need these resources,” Rodriguez said.

For those with access, the impact is clear. “They feel empowered with a sense of hope they didn’t have before, and that it’s a lifeline,” Rodriguez said.

The CEP takes patients if they are referred by their doctor. Emory offers online webinars that replicate what is being done in the program.

“People need a real view and need to understand it’s not the end of life, and there’s a lot of life to be had,” Lucas said.