NC at forefront of Alzheimer's research

GREENVILLE, N.C. - It's cancer of the mind.

Alzheimer’s Disease is not cancer, but it is a terminal disease that eats away the brain.

As part of our Understanding Alzheimer’s week, 9 On Your Side looks at how the Tarheel state is taking a major role in trying to come up with a cure.

It’s expected that some 20 million people will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease by 2050.

There's no cure today, but researchers in North Carolina are hoping tomorrow they'll be a step closer.

"When Alzheimer’s patients lose their memory it’s usually the most recent memories first, like you’re taking the videotape of their life and erasing it backwards.  So they have children they may not remember they have young children.  Often times they will mistake their children as their own parents because they remember their parents when they were young," said Dr. Stanley Oakley, Prof. of Psychiatric Medicine.

If you've had a family member suffer from Alzheimer’s, you know how devastating the process is.

What can be more disheartening, there isn't a pill or a vaccine that will cure it. All medication does now is treat the symptoms for awhile.

“I don't know of anything that is really close to on the market that maybe a cure but I know there is a lot in the research pipeline,” said Dr. Ann Marie Nye, Pharmacist.

A lot of that research is taking place right at UNC-Chapel Hill.

“We’re involved at virtually every level of diagnosis and treatment of the disease,” said Dr. Dan Kaufer, Dir. Dan Kaufer, UNC Memory Disorders. “I think we're on the verge of a very radical transformation in how we diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Dr. Kaufer said they are making progress with possible vaccines and medications, “On the treatment front, we are involved in a number of clinical trials that are looking at a potential drug.”

Some vaccines could be taken nasally to block certain proteins associated with Alzheimer’s.

One of their main goals is to develop ways to alert people to the disease in it's earliest of stages.

But right now, there isn't an exact way to diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease. The only real definitive way is through a brain scan, which can come too late.

Dr. Kaufer [said] finding ways to teach primary care physicians how to diagnose Alzheimer’s better could be a major key to one day finding a cure, “Changes begin 10 or 20 years before the first signs or symptoms.  So this moves the target back for where we really want to intervene in this disease process.”

The feeling is the earlier they can catch it, the better the opportunity to hold off it's eventual takeover.

But, there are steps you can take now to prevent its onset.

“I think the most important advice I can give to people in their 30's and 40's is to watch your lifestyle habits and do all the things that we know promote general health,” said Kaufer. A positive attitude in the darkest of times can also go along way. “One of the single most important things is how the patient and the family approach the disease process.  If they get the diagnosis and become despondent and despairing and give up hope, than that experience of the disease is going to be much worse compared to a patient and family who takes that diagnosis and takes stock of the things that can be done.”