USA2 SPOTLIGHT

An April 29, 2019 CISION PR Newswire release spotlighted UsAgainstAlzheimer’s call to action, in a new white paper, to make an annual brain check-up part of routine medical care. According to UsA2 Chairman George Vradenburg, “Given the emerging scientific evidence that dementia may be delayed or potentially prevented through proactive, risk-reducing actions, we must call on individuals, providers, and payers to focus on brain health. A system that prioritizes establishing a brain health baseline, continuous annual brain health check-ups, and individualized risk reduction can accelerate an end to this terrible disease while also greatly mitigating the burden on public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.” Read the full paper, “Creating an Optimal System of Brain Health Care in the United States” here.

An April 23, 2019 UsAgainstAlzheimer’s blog post by Alzheimer’s advocate, journalist and author Greg O’Brien, who has early-onset AD, relayed an “Alzheimer’s episode” where he became “Slivinsky.” After bungling getting an Uber to the airport for his family on a recent trip, O’Brien writes, “At this point, the driver had no choice, and is taking us to the airport. We’re late. Then MC’s phone rings. It’s the hotel. I’ve left my laptop, MY BRAIN, in the lobby. So the Uber driver now has to take us back to the hotel to pick up the laptop. Slivinsky, by the way, has grabbed another Uber, still quite upset. MC and Conor are now yelling at me, and apologizing profusely to the driver. I sat silently in the front seat.”

MUST READ

An April 30, 2019 STAT opinion piece by Raymond J. Tesi, MD put forward the idea that it’s ‘long past time’ to take a new approach to Alzheimer’s disease, especially in the wake of a string of failures of anti-amyloid clinical drug trials. According to Tesi, “A comfortable partnership developed between believers in the amyloid hypothesis, funding agencies, and drug companies, so that only programs supporting this hypothesis were funded… Following the advice of their academic advisers — most of them members of the amyloid cabal — drug companies dutifully developed drugs to target amyloid with the goal of treating Alzheimer’s disease. They believed it was only a matter of time before the Alzheimer’s problem was solved.”

An April 28, 2019 My Prime Time News article paid homage to all the women living with Alzheimer’s disease in the US, in honor of Mother’s Day. There are many ways people living with dementia can celebrate and enjoy such holidays. The article offers practical tips such as, “Adapt gift giving. Encourage safe and useful gifts for the person with Alzheimer’s. If someone asks for gift ideas, suggest items the person with dementia needs or can easily enjoy. Ideas include: an identification bracelet, CDs of favorite music, comfortable clothing, favorite foods and photo albums of family and friends.”

CLINICAL TRIAL SPOTLIGHT

The Exert Study posted a video of Alzheimer’s advocate and journalist Maria Shriver encouraging people to join. The NIA-funded Phase III trial is looking at the effects of different kinds of exercise on cognitive function. The study is recruiting people between 65-89, with MCI or mild memory loss, in good health but who do not exercise regularly. Click here to find study locations.