For Your Consideration: Health Issues in 2015 Oscar Movies
— -- This year's Oscar-nominated movies feature an array of illnesses, diseases and despair. Far from fiction, the health problems they portray are very real issues for millions of Americans. Here, the health conditions now in the spotlight explained.
Still Alice
In “Still Alice” Julianne Moore plays a college professor robbed of her intellect, vocabulary and even her ability to recognize her family by early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The devastating disease affects an estimated 200,000 people in the U.S., mainly striking people in their 40s and 50s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and is a progressive disease, meaning infected patients deteriorate overtime. The disease affects the part of the brain that deals with memory, language and thought. Currently there is no cure for the Alzheimer’s disease.
The Theory of Everything
"The Theory of Everything" tells the story of real-life physicist Stephen Hawking, who has lived with the debilitating disease ALS most of his life.
ALS, short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease, is caused by a progressive degeneration of motor neurons, the cells responsible for movement. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost and the patient ultimately becomes totally paralyzed, according to the ALS Association.
ALS awareness is at an all-time high thanks to this movie and last summer’s ice bucket challenge.
Wild
After her mother dies, Cheryl Strayed (played by Reese Witherspoon) embarks on a mission of self-destruction that eventually busts up her marriage. She impulsively decides to trek more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail -- alone -- which ultimately becomes a journey of enlightenment.
Strayed, whose memoir the movie is based on, has said her actions were the result of a clinical depression. Her behavior is consistent with the American Psychological Association's list of depression symptoms: insomnia, listlessness, feelings of worthlessness, erratic behavior and suicidal thoughts.
While the isolation of hitting the trail solo could have worsened her symptoms, regular exercise has been shown to boost mood and lift depression, according to the APA.
In the film version, Laura Dern plays Strayed's mother, who succumbs to lung cancer just months after being diagnosed.
In real life, lung cancer is the most deadly cancer for both men and women in the U.S., according to the American Lung Association. More women live with the disease than men, but more men are diagnosed with lung cancer every year.
Half of those diagnosed with lung cancer will die within one year of their diagnosis. Over the last 37 years, the rates of lung cancer cases have decreased for men by 28 percent, but risen for women by 98 percent, according to the American Lung Association.
The Imitation Game
In “The Imitation Game,” Benedict Cumberbatch plays renowned mathematician and World War II code-breaker Alan Turing. After the war, he was arrested and “chemically castrated” for homosexual activity by the British government.
In 1952, Turing was faced with a choice of prison or being given a series of injections of female hormones -- that is, being chemically castrated -- after his arrest for what the government at the time deemed "gross indecency." The shots were aimed at decreasing sex drive, although the BBC reported in 2012 that Turing mentioned it made him grow breasts. The famed code-breaker died two years later, in a reported suicide.
Turning was given a posthumous royal pardon in 2013.
