{"id":2717,"date":"2026-06-15T20:30:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2026-06-15T20:30:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:30:42","slug":"natalie-morales-on-alzheimers-and-caregiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/?p=2717","title":{"rendered":"Natalie Morales on Alzheimer’s and Caregiving"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tCBS correspondent Natalie Morales is 54, the same age her mother-in-law was when she received a devastating Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis. So when Morales experienced a memory lapse while on a recent work trip, she couldn\u2019t help but fear the worst.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m very well aware of when I have a memory lapse, whenever there\u2019s a word I can\u2019t think of,\u201d Morales told USA Today<\/a><\/em> in an interview this week. \u201cOr if, you know, I know this person but\u2026 I can\u2019t think of their name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn her trip, Morales forgot her hotel room number, spending minutes on the wrong floor tapping her key card against doors. \u201cOh my gosh,\u201d she remembered thinking. \u201cEither I\u2019m overworking, or I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. Maybe I\u2019m having perimenopause brain<\/a>.\u201d Of course, the thought of dementia also ran through her mind. Her mother-in-law, Kay Rhodes, died in 2014 after living with Alzheimer\u2019s for years.<\/p>\n

\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Olivia<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\tRelated story
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tOlivia Munn Describes ‘Surreal’ Breast Cancer Diagnosis: ‘I’d Seen This in Movies’\t\t<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n

\t
\n<\/section>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMorales doesn\u2019t have dementia<\/a>, but fearing it is understandable \u2014 once we get to a certain age, it\u2019s hard not<\/em> to. That\u2019s especially true when it\u2019s impacted your loved ones. \u201cI think she was always a little bit afraid of getting that diagnosis,\u201d Morales said of her mother-in-law. \u201cAnd there was a little bit of that denial, although I think she knew better than anyone what she was feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first signs, Morales remembers, were her mother-in-law having trouble completing tasks and repeating herself while speaking, along with anxiety<\/a> and paranoia.<\/p>\n

\n\tRhodes\u2019s struggle with Alzheimer\u2019s also impacted the rest of the family. Rhodes\u2019s husband was her primary caregiver and Morales says he felt the impact physically, emotionally, and financially. \u201cWith a lot of caregivers, you know, the more they invest in someone else and in that care, they lose themselves in that,\u201d Morales reflects.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow that Morales herself has some of those same Alzheimer\u2019s fears, she\u2019s both accepting and optimistic about the future. \u201cWe are at that age where these are things that we have to talk about and think about a lot more,\u201d she said. But thanks to medical advancements, there are now more treatments than ever for people with dementia, including new medicines<\/a>, better testing<\/a>, and drugs that stop Alzheimer\u2019s triggers<\/a>. \u201cThe outlook,\u201d Morales agrees, \u201cis so much more positive now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CBS correspondent Natalie Morales is 54, the same age her mother-in-law was when she received a devastating Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis. So when Morales experienced a memory lapse while on a recent work trip, she couldn\u2019t help but fear the worst. \u201cI\u2019m very well aware of when I have a memory lapse, whenever there\u2019s a word I can\u2019t think of,\u201d Morales told USA Today in an interview this week. \u201cOr if, you know, I know this person but\u2026 I can\u2019t think of their name.\u201d On her trip, Morales forgot her hotel room number, spending minutes on the wrong floor tapping her key card against doors. \u201cOh my gosh,\u201d she remembered thinking. \u201cEither I\u2019m overworking, or I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. Maybe I\u2019m having perimenopause brain.\u201d Of course, the thought of dementia also ran through her mind. Her mother-in-law, Kay Rhodes, died in 2014 after living with Alzheimer\u2019s for years. Related story Olivia Munn Describes ‘Surreal’ Breast Cancer Diagnosis: ‘I’d Seen This in Movies’ Morales doesn\u2019t have dementia, but fearing it is understandable \u2014 once we get to a certain age, it\u2019s hard not to. That\u2019s especially true when it\u2019s impacted your loved ones. \u201cI think she was always a little bit afraid of getting that diagnosis,\u201d Morales said of her mother-in-law. \u201cAnd there was a little bit of that denial, although I think she knew better than anyone what she was feeling.\u201d The first signs, Morales remembers, were her mother-in-law having trouble completing tasks and repeating herself while speaking, along with anxiety and paranoia. Rhodes\u2019s struggle with Alzheimer\u2019s also impacted the rest of the family. Rhodes\u2019s husband was her primary caregiver and Morales says he felt the impact physically, emotionally, and financially. \u201cWith a lot of caregivers, you know, the more they invest in someone else and in that care, they lose themselves in that,\u201d Morales reflects. Now that Morales herself has some of those same Alzheimer\u2019s fears, she\u2019s both accepting and optimistic about the future. \u201cWe are at that age where these are things that we have to talk about and think about a lot more,\u201d she said. But thanks to medical advancements, there are now more treatments than ever for people with dementia, including new medicines, better testing, and drugs that stop Alzheimer\u2019s triggers. \u201cThe outlook,\u201d Morales agrees, \u201cis so much more positive now.\u201d Source link<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-female-health-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}