USA2 SPOTLIGHT

Turn to page 18 in the November 2019 issue of Washington Life Magazinefor photo coverage of our Trish Vradenburg Dinner, which wrapped-up our UsA2 “2019 National Alzheimer’s Summit: Uniting Communities for a Cure and Promoting Better Brain Health” last month.

(ICYMI) A November 5, 2019 The Flawless Foundation blog post highlighted our 2019 National Alzheimer’s Summit final keynote discussion between former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta. The conversation covered the intersection of civil rights, racism and Alzheimer’s disease. According to the post, “Fighting racism and curing Alzheimer’s have to be everybody’s issue. We only have one human race, and everyone has somebody in their family who has suffered on some level, either from Alzheimer’s, a brain health issue, or another physical illness. We cannot leave anyone behind in our fight for a cure. We’ve got the power.”

Today at 1pm (EST), join the A-LIST's own Terry Frangiosa on Help For Alzheimer’s Families live chat, “Family Dynamics in Caregiving: How to Improve Communication & Make Decisions Together.” Frangiosa, a research investigator and former caregiver, will discuss family dynamics in caregiving, including hiring in-home care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s, potential sibling challenges and improved communication and decision-making. A-LIST is an initiative of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s.

BRAIN HEALTH

A November 18, 2019 Medscape News video segment [log in] featured Richard S. Isaacson, MD of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, discussing the potential benefits of vitamin D to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease. Data shows that it “potentially” has a positive effect. According to Isaacson, “In conclusion, I would say that vitamin D is generally safe and that it is potentially effective as well. When it comes to risk reduction, as well as for treatment of patients with early Alzheimer's disease, vitamin D may very well be one of our new therapeutic paradigms.”

RESEARCH AND SCIENCE

A BrightFocus article focused on answering the question, ‘can Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia be passed along in the genes we inherit?’ James M. Ellison, MD, MPH of Swank Memory Care Center, Christiana Care Health System offered the good news that most of the time, AD is not passed down by a single gene. However, older adults are still at significant health risk even without inheriting one of the causative genes. According to the article, “About one in twenty people with AD have the early-onset form of the disease (EOAD), defined as beginning before age 60. In only a minority of cases is EOAD attributable to the inheritance of at least one gene allele that is linked with the disease.”