Alzheimer's leaves Reagan unable to speak, feed himself

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Ravaged by Alzheimer's disease, former US president Ronald Reagan is no longer able to speak or feed himself and does not recognize his family, an exclusive report said.

People magazine said in its December 5 edition that the United States' 40th president, who is 92, spends his days confined to a hospital bed in a small room in his Los Angeles mansion with his wife, former first lady Nancy Reagan, almost constantly at his bedside.

And the emotional and physical strain is taking a heavy toll on the increasingly-frail Nancy Reagan, 82, who fiercely protects her ailing husband's dignity to the extent that even their closest friends are barred from seeing him, the magazine said.

Reagan's formerly estranged step-daughter Patti Davis wrote in the magazine that her father was unable to talk or walk and said it was only his robust physical constitution that ...