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President Mike welcomes Tim Armour, president of the
Cure Alzheimer's Fund, and PDG Dave Clifton
Past District Governor Dave Clifton set the stage for our speaker by discussing the establishment of a Rotary Action Group on Alzheimer’s and dementia. He sees this as a precursor to possibly selecting memory loss as one of two or three major causes for Rotary to tackle once polio is truly eradicated. The action group works closely with the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund (CAF), which distributed $10 million to researchers last year.
Tim Armour, CAF president, said we are a long way from having a drug to cure Alzheimer’s (the largest category of dementia conditions), although several that hold some promise are in trial. CAF focuses its efforts in the earliest steps of the process, involving genetic research that precedes drug development. Their group believes success may ultimately come from three directions: developing a preventive drug, finding an existing drug that works on Alzheimer’s, and/or a range of genetically based medications.
While there are no sure ways to prevent Alzheimer’s, Armour said regular exercise (10,000 steps a day) is the best know way to reduce risk. Others include following a Mediterranean diet and learning new things.
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