Memory Walk began in 1989 and in 1993, it became a a nationwide event for the Alzheimer’s Association. Memory Walk is our country’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. Since its inception it has raised well over $200 million nationally. For every dollar raised at Memory Walk, only 7% will go towards administrative expenses.

Not only does the Memory Walk raise funds, it raises awareness of this awful disease. According to the 2010 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the foremost public health threat of the 21st century. Here is the grim data:

• An estimated 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease (AD); approximately 200,000 persons under age 65 with AD comprise the younger-onset AD population.
• Every 70 seconds, someone in America develops AD; by 2050 it is expected to decrease to every 33 seconds. Over the coming decades, the baby boom population is projected to add 10 million people to these numbers.
• In 2050, the incidence of AD is expected to approach nearly a million people per year, with a total estimated prevalence of 11–16 million people. Dramatic increases in the numbers of “oldest old” (aged 85 years and older) across all racial and ethnic groups will also significantly affect the numbers of people living with AD.

You can do your share to help stop Alzheimer’s disease. Consider joining a Memory Walk team. Click here to find a team or start one on your own. My sister is representing our family. Please help support her team. Click here.

AD does not occur overnight. In some cases, it can start many years before you are even aware of it. Could you be one diagnosed with AD down the road? We have to fund the research to stop this. We have to help support the millions caregivers. We just might need the support of one in the years to come. Let’s help support them now!

Check out this video from the Alzheimer’s Association that tells you more about the Memory Walk.

In three days, it will be 15 years since my father passed away. September also marks one year since I started this blog. It has opened my eyes (and my brain) to so many things. I’ve written about a variety of subjects, a number of them focused on research. Most recently, I got involved in a study at George Mason University (GMU). As a part of this study, I consented for them to do an MRI of my brain which they did last week. The anticipation of it all was more nerve-wracking than the procedure itself. The MRI machine at GMU is just for brain research and is smaller than the typical machine that is used for diagnosing other diseases and problems in hospitals and imaging centers.

Also last week, I went to a near-by assisted living facility where a nurse practitioner from Georgetown University Medical Center spoke on Research in Alzheimer’s Disease: Hope for the Future. Her talk will be the topic of another blog post, but one of the main difficulties that research studies are facing is the lack of participants. There are many research studies going on across the country. In a previous post on research, I mentioned a government Web site where you can look at some clinical studies recruiting for volunteers. Even the study that I’m in at George Mason University is looking for more subjects. Send me an e-mail for more information — info@aboutalz.com.

So if you’ve ever wondered if Alzheimer’s disease research needs volunteers, the answer is a resounding yes! It will not cost you anything except your time. You will be contributing toward understanding the staggering fact that every 70 seconds, a person is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and with our aging population, the numbers will continue to rise. We must do all that we can to stop this and help find a cure!

Image via Wikipedia

I saw an ad in a favorite little periodical I receive called the Golden Gazette. It’s published for senior adults in the county I live in. The ad read: Healthy Adults 40 & Older Needed for Research Study. That caught my attention. I read further:

The ARCH Lab at George Mason University, Fairfax campus, needs healthy adults age 40 to 65 to participate in behavior studies on memory and attention.

Bingo! I qualified age-wise and I’m definitely interested in anything related to memory. I e-mailed them immediately and was accepted into the longitudinal four-year study. There was a small monetary compensation, but I didn’t care about that. I was curious to see what the testing was about and if they are going to track me over a four-year period, then I’d definitely be interested in any changes that may occur.

The official name of the study is “Allelic Association to Study the Genetics of Cognitive Aging.” As defined by the Genetics Home Reference, an allele is one of two or more versions of a gene. An individual inherits two alleles for each gene, one from each parent. Click on the Genetics Home Reference link for more information.

According to the Consent Form that I signed, the research is being conducted to study the effect of normal variation in genes on processes of attention and memory in both healthy individuals and those at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. They hope to better understand the role of genetics in individual differences in attention and memory.

The test was comprised of several parts using the computer, paper and pencil, getting cheek cells for DNA analysis. An MRI would be done at a separate time, if one is interested.

Parts of the test were quite long which tested your attention span. Included in the computer test were the following:

• A set of dot(s) flashed and you needed to determine if the second set of dot(s) was in the same position as the first.
• A group of letters was presented and every time it included a pink “T” you needed to push a button.
• Each time a vowel flashed you needed to push a button.

Included in the non-computer test were the following:

• Puzzle completion
• Repeating a story that was read
• Vocabulary — defining words
• You were read a series of mixed up letters and numbers and you needed to put them in order, numbers first (from memory)
• Reciting numbers backwards by 7

Results of the study are for research only and the identity of the participants will not be revealed. Participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time. I’m glad to have George Mason University close by and to have the opportunity to participate.

There’s been a lot of news about Alzheimer’s disease recently because of the annual meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (AAICAD) which met from July 10 to 15, 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The AAICAD is the world’s largest conference of its kind. It brought together almost 4,000 researchers from around the world to report and discuss groundbreaking research and information on the cause, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

Alzheimer’s disease research continues to be under-funded, but this appears to be the most significant disease that the baby boomer generation will face. There were many interesting and significant items to come out of the conference, but I want to mention two of them because they immediately impact us. I mentioned in a previous post that participating in a clinical trial could prove to be very time-consuming, but if this is of interest to you, here is good news for you.

The Alzheimer’s Association announced the launch of Alzheimer’s Association TrialMatchTM, a confidential, free, and interactive tool that provides comprehensive clinical trial information and an individualized trial matching service for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The Internet (www.alz.org/trialmatch) and phone-based (800-272-3900) program provides a first-of-its-kind service in Alzheimer’s by delivering individualized matches to clinical trials for people with Alzheimer’s, their healthcare professionals, caregivers, and healthy volunteers.

Second, we know that diet and exercise can play a role in either slowing down or reducing the risk of dementia. For example, adding turmeric to the diet (click here) might be beneficial.

Evidence from three long-term, large-scale studies (Framingham Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, NHANES III) supports the association of physical activity and certain dietary elements (tea, vitamin D) with possibly maintaining cognitive ability and reducing dementia risk in older adults. Plus, a new study in an animal model of Alzheimer’s reported today at AAICAD 2010 suggests that an antioxidant-rich diet with walnuts may benefit brain function. Research has pointed towards a number of factors that may impact our risk of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline, the strongest being reducing cardiovascular risk factors. The Alzheimer’s Association and others have repeatedly called for longer-term, larger-scale research studies to clarify the roles that these factors play in the health of the aging brain. These studies from AAICAD 2010 are some of the first reports of this type in Alzheimer’s, and that is encouraging, but it is not yet definitive evidence.

Next year the group will meet in Paris, France from July 16-21. We look forward to more exciting news to come out of the meetings. For more research findings, click here.

ICAD 2011

Here are two evils — Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Which would you choose? Of course, neither. I recently read something that said if you have Alzheimer’s you’re not likely to get cancer and vice versa, if you get cancer, you’re not likely to get Alzheimer’s. So that got me researching — is Alzheimer’s disease protection for cancer?

In December 2009, Neurology published a report by Dr. Catherine M. Roe of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis which stated that understanding the link between Alzheimer’s disease and cancer may lead to possible treatments.

Roe and her team studied 3,020 people aged 65 and older. They were followed for an average of five years to see if they developed dementia and an average of eight years for cancer. Here is how the study started:

• 164 (5.4%) had Alzheimer’s disease
• 522 (17.3%) had cancer

Here is what they found:

For people who had Alzheimer’s disease at the outset, the risk of future cancer was reduced by 69 percent compared to those who did not have Alzheimer’s disease when the study started.

For white people who had cancer when the study started, their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease was reduced by 43 percent compared to people who did not have cancer at the start of the study.

This effect, however, did not apply to minority populations. In fact, the opposite effect was observed in minority populations — those who started out with cancer at the beginning of the study were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. However, the sample size of minorities starting off with cancer (29 individuals) was too small for the result to be considered significant.

Overall, the results of this study support previous findings that cancer and brain degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease may share common molecular underpinnings. However, Roe noted in an email to Reuters Health, “Since we found no associations between vascular dementia and cancer, we don’t think that cancer is linked to dementia generally.”

Vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, is caused by clogged blood vessels and other conditions affecting the blood supply to the brain. Based on the current study, only the degenerative form of dementia, and not the form caused by lack of blood to the brain, appears to be somehow protective against cancer.

To read the full article, click here.

Retina

We already know that in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) there is amyloid plaque that builds up in the brain which causes the AD. Now, scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California report that the same nerve cell-damaging plaque also builds up in the retinas of the eyes. Moreover, it shows up in the retinas earlier than in the brain and this could lead to earlier diagnosis using non-invasive optical imaging.

Amyloid plaque was discovered in the retinas of deceased Alzheimer’s disease patients and further tested on live laboratory mice genetically modified to model the human disease. The research was conducted by a team of scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in collaboration with colleagues from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and the University of Southern California. The results will be presented on July 13, 2010 at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In an earlier study published last year, University of California – Irvine neuroscientists found that retinas in genetically altered mice with Alzheimer’s undergo changes similar to those that occur in the brain — most notably the accumulation of amyloid plaque lesions. In addition, the scientists discovered that when Alzheimer’s disease therapies are tested in such mice, retinal changes that result might predict how the treatments will work in humans better than changes in mouse brain tissue.

Alzheimer’s disease is becoming more prevalent world-wide and is tragic for the whole family. The retina is readily accessible and since it is considered part of the central nervous system, it has many similarities with the brain. This discovery is non-invasive and if it proves to be conclusive as well, we can start to prepare for the difficult future much sooner than previously.

You can read about this most recent study at several Web sites. Click here.

The American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias recently reported in an open-label pilot study that apple juice improved behavioral, but not cognitive symptoms in moderate-to-late Alzheimer’s disease patients. Although this was a very small study of only 21 institutionalized patients who drank two 4-ounce glasses of apple juice twice a day for a month, the study suggests that apple juice may be a useful nutritional supplement since, as Alzheimer’s disease (AD)  progresses, the mood of AD patients may decline as well. It may help ease the burden for caregivers.

The study said, “Caregivers reported an approximate 27% (P < .01) improvement in behavioral and psychotic symptoms associated with dementia as quantified by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, with the largest changes in anxiety, agitation, and delusion.”

Exactly how apple juice might help remains unclear. It’s possible that the antioxidant nutrients in the apple juice reduces the oxidative damage to the brain tissue.

Since this was a very small study funded by the apple industry with no placebo, the conclusions need to be viewed with caution. However, given that apple juice is a healthy and inexpensive beverage, it would seem a positive thing for caregivers to try.

Research is one of the areas of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) of great interest to me. One of the best Web sites for this information is http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers. This Web site is part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center (ADEAR). Although the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is located in Bethesda, Maryland in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, there are studies going on across the country. In addition, there are research studies at all stages of Alzheimer’s. The NIH, known as The Nation’s Medical Research Agency, includes 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research.

Through research, diagnoses of AD is becoming increasingly accurate. However, absolute certainly still requires an autopsy to define the plaques in the brain. Participation in these studies may require an autopsy where there is no charge to the family. However, if an autopsy is not acceptable to you or your loved one, then participating in research may not be something you should consider.

Participating in a research study could be very time consuming as well. It could involve commuting to the study site as well as filling out mounds of paper work. The specific drug in the drug trial may or may not work or it may work for awhile and then stop working so it’s better to keep your expectations low. Just remember to consider all aspects of  your life as a caregiver before signing up your loved one.

In this, the third of our series of breakthrough tests for Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), have developed a fast and accurate method for quantifying subtle, sub-regional brain volume loss using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This study promises to improve diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

The techniques were applied to the dataset of the multi-institution Alzhiemer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). What the scientists at UCSD were able to demonstrate was that the sub-regional brain volume measurements outperform available measures for tracking the severity of AD, including widely used cognitive testing and measures of global brain-volume loss.

According to insciences.org, the new research shows that changes in the brain’s memory regions, in particular a region of the entorhinal cortex, offer sensitive measures of the early stages of the disease. According to Anders M. Dale, PhD, professor of neurosciences and radiology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who led the study, “Loss of volume in the hippocampus is a consistent finding when using MRI, and is a reliable predictor of cognitive decline. However, we have now developed and validated imaging biomarkers to not only track brain atrophy, but distinguish the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease from changes related to normal aging.”

The study’s co-author, James Brewer, MD, PhD, a neurologist and assistant professor in the Departments of Radiology and Neurosciences at UCSD adds that, “The technique is extremely powerful, because it allows a researcher to examine exactly how much brain-volume loss has occurred in each region of the brain, including cortical regions, where we know the bad proteins of Alzheimer’s disease build up.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are serial MRI brain scans, taken six months apart, that show progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease with significant atrophy (blue) and ventricle enlargement (orange/red).

For more information, see “Analyzing Structural Brain Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease” at insciences.org.