With Alzheimer's Disease and dementia being in the news with the recent diagnosis of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, questions about President Joe Biden could be answered with a cognitive test, former Housing and Urban Development secretary and renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson said Thursday on Newsmax.
"I, too, went through it with my mother, and it's a horrible thing and I feel terrible, for the Carter family with the diagnosis that was done," Carson said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "It's the most common type of dementia there is and it can come on very gradually, it can progress quickly, or it can be very slow."
While there have been many questions about Biden, 80, Carson said that it's not known if the president suffers from dementia but "he is certainly suffering from problems associated with aging, there's no question about that, and frequently that involves memory problems.
"That's certainly not somebody that you want with the finger on the button and making critical decisions, and that's really the saddest part about all of what's going on right now."
Carson said there are "people on the left who would gladly sacrifice the well-being of our country so that they can hold on to power, and we've gotten to a very bad place."
Biden could put many of the questions to rest "by just taking a cognitive test," said Carson. "It's very easy to do."
Carson said some researchers believe dementia can be slowed or accelerated by "environmental circumstances."
The progress of the disease, he said, can be slowed by keeping people active and "challenged mentally," said Carson.
"Keeping them involved will slow the progression, and many of the researchers feel that is the case," said Carson. "So if someone in your family at is at risk for [Alzheimer's], make sure you keep them engaged and involved in things, chess, things like that, that will challenge them."
It's also important to remain patient, said Carson.
"A lot of times people with Alzheimer's get very angry and they say things that they obviously don't mean," he said. "Don't react in a negative way to that."
There's no cure for Alzheimer's and dementia.
"People think it's something new, but it's just that in the past, people didn't live that long," Carson said. "So, if they didn't live that long, they didn't get dementia. But now that we have more people living into an advanced stage, we're going to see it more, apparently, and the more research, the more likely we are to find the actual cause and to be able to prevent it."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.