USA2 SPOTLIGHT

Join UsAgainstAlzheimer’s for a very special “Music and the Mind” Alzheimer’s Talks with world-renowned soprano Renée Fleming. Host Meryl Comer will also interview top geriatrician Dr. Marie Bernard, Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging at the NIH. Thursday, October 3, 2019 at 5:00pm (EST). Ms. Fleming will discuss her ongoing advocacy and educational efforts around music therapy and cognitive neuroscience, exploring the power of music in relation to health and the brain. Dr. Bernard will address the neurological effects of music on people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

MUST READS

An October 1, 2019 National Institutes on Aging (NIA) press releaseannounced the launch of The Alzheimer Centers for the Discovery of New Medicines, with the goal of diversifying and reinvigorating the Alzheimer’s disease drug development pipeline. The centers will offer their data, research methodologies and computational and experimental tools for free to academia and industry for use in drug discovery. According to NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, “Through these centers, NIH will expand the use of open-science and open-source principles to de-risk novel drug targets with the goal of facilitating the development of new treatments for Alzheimer’s.”

PATIENT AND CAREGIVER VOICES

A September 30, 2019 WCTV broadcast segment spotlighted Priscilla Jean-Louis, who is caring for her mom who has Alzheimer’s disease. Jean-Louis, who now works from home (she moved into her mother’s house) and enjoys the caretaking, hopes to inspire others in their caregiving journeys. According to the article, “Jean-Louis is now working to spread that positivity to other caretakers through a Facebook and YouTube page. It is called 'My Favorite Girl and Alzheimer's,' in tribute to her mother. On it she shares what she calls, "momma moments," including the good, the bad and the in-between. Jean-Louis said she wants to encourage and inspire others who might be overwhelmed by their responsibility.

YOUTH FOCUS

A September 27, 2019 KETV ABC 7 broadcast segment focused on an experimental treatment for Niemann-Pick Type C, or ‘childhood Alzheimer’s,’ which is fatal. The drug helps flush cholesterol out of the body. Three-year-old Osama Hamad is responding positively to the treatment and his family hopes it will receive FDA approval. Because of the drug, he is now able to walk and talk.

MUST LISTEN

A September 26, 2019 Marketplace Morning Report radio segment spoke with political cartoonist Ted Rall, who began drawing comics about his personal experience as a family caregiver navigating his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. “Political cartooning is inherently a divisive format. It does not bring people together. But the cartoons I’ve done about Alzheimer’s have been non-partisan. Democrats and Republicans both have parents, brothers, sisters, and grandparents – everybody is going to get old,” said Rall.