USA2 SPOTLIGHT

Come join author Marita Golden at Politics and Prose Bookstore as she discusses “Us Against Alzheimer’s: Stories of Family, Love, and Faith ,” a book dedicated to UsAgainstAlzheimer’s containing forty narratives about how AD affects patients, families and caregivers, and featuring several UsA2 Board members and advocates, including Greg O'Brien, Daisy Duarte, and Nihal Satyadev. Golden will speak with contributing writers Sonsyrea Tate, Heather Davis, Cathy Alter and Joe Oppenheimer about their own personal experiences with Alzheimer’s disease. Friday, October 4, 2019 at 7pm, in Washington, DC.

POLITICS

A September 29, 2019 KCCI Des Moines 8 “Conversation with the Candidate” segment spoke with presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke about his presidential platform. According to the segment, “O’Rourke said that doubling the amount the U.S. spends on Alzheimer's disease, from $300 billion to $600 billion a year, is “morally the right thing to do” and is a “fraction of the cost that we would pay for long-term continued care for those who have no cure to look forward to right now.””

RESEARCH AND SCIENCE

A September 27, 2019 Sci Tech Daily article looked at the nutrient choline, which blocks the production of amyloid-beta plaques and can potentially be used as a dietary supplement to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center found that beneficial effects of lifelong choline supplementation reduce the activation of microglia, which can lead to AD symptoms such as brain inflammation and neuronal death. According to the article, “In this study, researchers used a water maze to determine whether the mice with AD-like symptoms that received lifelong supplemental choline exhibited improvements in spatial memory. It was found that this was indeed the case, and subsequent examination of mouse tissue extracted from the hippocampus, a brain region known to play a central role in memory formation, confirmed changes in toxic amyloid-beta and reductions in microglia activation, which reduces brain inflammation.” Also covered by Medical Xpress, and The Asian Age.

FAITH SPOTLIGHT

A September 27, 2019 Knox News article highlighted Concord United Methodist Church's twice monthly, dementia-friendly Sunday worship services, geared toward people with dementia and their families. Many people with dementia and their families stop going to church “They start to lose their social network, and they start to lose the activities they are able to participate in. One of the things families continue to express to us is, 'Well we had to stop going to church' or 'We had to stop going to our Sunday School class.' So it just kind of dawned on us — we have already got the volunteers and the staff who know how to interact (with people with dementia). It seemed like a natural extension to offer worship,” said Celia Gruzalski of Concord's C.A.D.E.S. weekday adult day care.

LIFESTYLE

A September 26, 2019 The Augusta Chronicle article spotlighted Day One Fitness in Beech Island, where people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s work on their balance and movement, and practice falling to help limit serious injuries. “The research has proven that inactivity is pro-degenerative so what that means is when you stop being active, you start that decline. Once you decline, it is hard to get back up because you lack the stamina and the strength and the ability to do that,” said Tambra Wilkerson.