Sully, the pilot hero on the Hudson, shares Alzheimer’s diagnosis

The pilot who more than 17 years ago saved 155 people by landing his plane in the Hudson River has announced Tuesday that he has early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Retired Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger told the world this week about his diagnosis.

The announcement comes just as the Alzheimer’s Association is holding its annual conference in London, with new study findings emerging from around the world.

He earned hero status in 2009 when he safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York. No lives were lost. A flock of geese took out both engines of the plane, which had just left New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

The story became the basis of a movie in 2016. “Sully” starred Tom Hanks.

In his announcement, Sullenberger, 75, called Alzheimer’s disease, which the Alzheimer’s Association said impacts more than 7 million Americans, “the unwanted visitor at the door.” But he added that “my diagnosis will not prevent me from looking forward to and appreciating our future.”

The “our” refers to his wife of nearly four decades, Lorrie Sullenberger, as well as his two daughters and a granddaughter. “I will navigate this chapter with my wonderful family by my side,” he said.

“It is early stage,” Sullenberger said. “For now, this means a name may not come easily to me, I forget a story I have recently told or I don’t sleep as well. But I am at the beginning of this long journey.”

After a life of service, he said he wondered what that would look like with Alzheimer’s. “The answer is to speak up. It is my hope that by sharing this, other families living in the shadows with this disease will feel they, too, can step forward.”

Advances in Alzheimer’s research

The Alzheimer’s Association is announcing a lot of research and significant findings at the international conference and in its online component.

Here are five findings on Alzheimer’s, based on releases from the conference newsroom:

• Alzheimer’s blood tests are expected to be a very accurate diagnostic tool in everyday clinical care. The news release said that a head-to-head comparison showed that a primary care doctor could review blood test results and, like a specialist, accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s more than 90% of the time. “After seeing the blood test results, the physicians changed diagnoses in about one-third of the patients and changed their plans for future care and examination for more than half of the patients,” per the release.
• A separate study found a blood test could help predict risk of cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s a decade before symptoms, allowing cognitively healthy people who are at risk to get involved in prevention trials and it could promote earlier treatment and monitoring. The research is published in JAMA. Said Maria C. Carrillo, the association’s chief science officer, “This is the future of Alzheimer’s care, targeting the earliest stages of the disease, including in its silent stage before memory issues arise. This is when treatments may have the greatest benefit — perhaps even keeping people from ever experiencing dementia symptoms." She said finding those at risk early could “fundamentally change how we diagnose, treat and prevent dementia, with far-reaching health, happiness and cost implications for patients, families, healthcare systems and society.”
• A combination of THC and CBD seems to “significantly reduce” agitation for those with dementia at the end of life. The lead investigator, Dr. Jacobo Mintzer, a psychiatrist and professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, said that people with dementia at the end of life have historically been overlooked in research. “We now have a new and very effective treatment approach for agitation that may be appropriate for people in the final stages of dementia at the end of life.”
• The Alzheimer’s Association is launching a global clinical trial to see if combining the U.S. POINTER lifestyle along with GLP-1 or similar medication will cut risk of cognitive decline. It’s a $100 million effort to see if combining the drugs with lifestyle changes like physical activity, nutrition, cardiovascular health, sleep and social engagement cut those risks.
• Former elite soccer players are showing signs of brain health changes when they hit middle age. In the study, the former players reported “higher levels of depression and anxiety and had subjective difficulties with thinking and decision-making.” MRIs showed differences in brain structure for the players, compared to people with no history of contact sports or head injuries. Other studies at the gathering also noted a link between long soccer careers and signs of neural injury, tau accumulation and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).