{"id":5151,"date":"2024-06-25T11:35:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=5151"},"modified":"2024-06-25T11:35:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:35:54","slug":"dallas-cowboys-legend-michael-irvin-says-his-wife-has-early-onset-alzheimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2024\/06\/dallas-cowboys-legend-michael-irvin-says-his-wife-has-early-onset-alzheimers.html","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys Legend Michael Irvin Says His Wife Has Early-Onset Alzheimer&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5157\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5157\" style=\"width: 963px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5157\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2024\/06\/michael-irvin-wife-diagnosis-credit-michael-irvin-instagram.png\" alt=\"michael irvin\" width=\"963\" height=\"738\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5157\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">@michaelirvin88\/Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin recently shared that his wife of 34 years, Sandy, has Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The 58-year-old Pro Football Hall of Famer told the <em>Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/em> that his wife, who is also 58 years old, has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s and that she\u2019s been dealing with the disease for five or six years.<\/p>\n<p>Irvin told the outlet that his wife, who now requires round-the-clock care and a live-in caretaker, has trouble walking, speaking and will remain in the family home.\u00a0Irvin said in a text to the <em>Star-Telegram,<\/em> \u201cIf anyone has earned the right to stay in her house, MY WIFE HAS!!! That I shall honor. No matter what it takes.\u201d According to the Alzheimer\u2019s Association,\u00a0early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s\u00a0(also known as younger-onset) impacts people younger than 65, and symptoms can develop as young as 30.\u00a0Younger\/early-onset Alzheimers is \u201cmuch less common\u201d and affects people under the age of 65, per the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alz.org\/alzheimers-dementia\/what-is-alzheimers\/younger-early-onset\">Alzheimer\u2019s Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xxTy0mmNULg?si=Tl6ecVmLjPOBzUNa\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>People in their 40s and 50s are most likely to be diagnosed with it, and getting an accurate diagnosis \u201ccan be a long and frustrating process,\u201d per the non-profit. \u201cDoctors do not understand why most cases of early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s appear at such a young age,\u201d the website reads. \u201cBut in a few hundred families worldwide, scientists have pinpointed several rare genes that directly cause Alzheimer\u2019s.\u201d According to the Alzheimer\u2019s Association, nearly 7 million\u00a0Americans have Alzheimer\u2019s, with 6.9 million Americans age 65 and older living with it in 202<\/p>\n<p>According to ProFootballTalk, The couple began dating during his college football days at Miami and will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary later this month. In a post on Instagram celebrating their 33rd wedding anniversary, Irvin said, \u201cThank God for 33yrs of marriage and 38yrs total with the greatest BLESSING and GIFT he has ever BESTOWED on me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin recently shared that his wife of 34 years, Sandy, has Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The 58-year-old Pro Football Hall of Famer told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that his wife, who is also 58 years old, has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s and that she\u2019s been dealing with the disease for five or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":5157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,40],"tags":[468,912],"class_list":["post-5151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity","category-physical-health","tag-alzheimers","tag-michael-irvin"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dallas Cowboys Legend Michael Irvin Says His Wife Has Early-Onset Alzheimer&#039;s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin recently shared that his wife of 34 years, Sandy, has Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2024\/06\/dallas-cowboys-legend-michael-irvin-says-his-wife-has-early-onset-alzheimers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dallas Cowboys Legend Michael Irvin Says His Wife Has Early-Onset Alzheimer&#039;s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin recently shared that his wife of 34 years, Sandy, has Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2024\/06\/dallas-cowboys-legend-michael-irvin-says-his-wife-has-early-onset-alzheimers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" 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