From KOLD-TV, Tucson

An AMA meeting today discussed Alzheimer's Prevention, including early detection and anti-oxidants. Part of the challenge of course is detection, where MemCheck can play a major role in halting the disease by making people aware they may have a problem

"We have medications that at least help with the symptomatic aspects of the disease," said Dr. Steven Dekosky from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "We are really looking for the big victory, which would be a way to help slow down the biological progression of the disease, or the clinical progression of the disease, or even stop it before it starts. We know that there's inflammation in the brain. We're trying anti-inflammatory drugs to see if anti-inflammatory drugs would slow down the progression. We know that there is something called oxidative stress, where injury to the brain occurs because of biochemical imbalances. So we use what are called anti-oxidant mediations, vitamin E is an anti-oxidant, to see if it would slow down the progression."

Dr. Dekosky says if you delay the onset of Alzheimer's by 5 years, you decrease the number of people who get it by 50%.