The proteins that abound in every cell of our bodies are not simply strings of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon they are the building blocks of our personalities and relationships. Alzheimer’s Disease is more than the gradual loss of a loved one it can be a family’s multigenerational curse. Peskin never loses sight of the human impact of these conditions. Along the way, Peskin entertains with tales of the sometimes outlandish, often criticized, and forever devoted scientists who discovered it all. With an intoxicating blend of history and intrigue, Sara Manning Peskin invites readers to play medical detective, tracing each diagnosis from the patient to an ailing nervous system. One after another, poor farmers in South Carolina drop dead from a mysterious epidemic of dementia.

A man planning to propose marriage instead becomes violently enraged, gripped by body spasms so severe that he nearly bites off his own tongue. By dinner, she is strapped to a hospital bed, convinced she is battling zombies. Here are gripping accounts of unruly molecules and the diseases that form in their wake.Ī college student cannot remember if she has eaten breakfast. Our brains are the most complex machines known to humankind, but they have an Achilles heel: the very molecules that allow us to exist can also sabotage our minds. Riveting stories of the brain on the brink, from an acclaimed cognitive neurologist.

A molecule away from madness