The toll from alzheimerss rising. More americans die from the disease and more people develop it. One important question has bedeviled the researchers trying to figure out how the brain destroying syndrome, worrieses. Why do some people have concentrations in the protein markers in their brains but normally signal alzheimerss, and not suffer from the disease. Break throughs are offering some clues to that mystery, at the same time, theres new intelligence on the terrible toll the disease takes and the gender profiling for its effects. Women are much more likely to be given the care tending tasks as care givers sufferer the disease. Women over 65, have a one in six chance of developing alzheimerss. Amuch higher number than men. 40 have a one in 11 chance. It may be related between genders. Women suffer other burdens related to the disease too. The report found class to 70 of alzheimerss patient care givers are women. Nearly a quarter of women cut their, worriesing hours to part time. Only 3 of men surveyed sacrifices the same amount. Its a big burden, theres not enough homes, that are memory care that are affordable. Theres not enough of them that take medicare or medicaid. The from longed cost of care can be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Medicare is projected to spend nearly one out of 5 on the disease, this year. But good news for both women and men, came this week in another new study by harvard unit. Scientists now see the potential of a brains own protective systems to prevent alzheimerss. The promising findings centered on brain proteins called rest, its something we all have in increasing amounts as we age. Rest protects brain cells from dying of aids related stressing includes against a protein called beta am lloyd. Which clogs the brains of alzheimerss patients. Rest researchers found repressing the genes involved in alzheimerss disease. Rest levelers were lower than normal than those diagnosed with the disease. The team is now looking to test with experimental drugs that pump up. Prescription may include something already on the market, which seems to activist rest. All of these findings contribute to our understanding of the disease and how to deal with it, especially for the 5 million families across the u. S. , with loved ones battling the condition. Also smears is estimated to kill more than half a Million People every year. We are learning more about this terrible disease, every day. From what it does to our bodies to the impact on our families and loved ones. Alzheimers disease is complex, hard to manage, and without a cure. We are joined now by three people on the front lines of the alzheimerss battle from rochester minnesota, dr. Ronald petersen, director of the alzheimerss Disease Research center. In our washington studio, gale hunt, president and c. E. O. Of the National Alliance for care giving and from chicago, angela, chief Strategy Officer of the alzheimerss association. Dr. Fielder sen, we talk add little bit about rest, but help us understand what is it . What is the actual stuff of rest . Well, rest is a protein that starts to protect the brain. Seven against various toxins. So as you indicated many people who live throughout the life span have am lloyd in the brain. Some of them become clinically impaired and some do not. Its always been a mystery as to why people with the same amount of this toxic protein in the brain can do well. This study indicates that perhaps this rest protein, is active at Different Levels in those individuals. So people who have the protein in the brain, but do not become demented may have higher levels of this protein, than individuals who do become clinically impairs and that may give office therapeutic window. That may predispose them. Adult it make it tricky to figure out how it works since there is no test for it. You can only do these observations after a person is no longer living and you can get your hands on their brain. Thats right, that is a challenge. How can we assess how much protein a person may have. But the experiment is ready to be conducted because if we can measure that in the blood or some other fashion, we can now detect protein in the brain, of living individuals, even before they become clinically impaired. Let me turn now to an la. The new stats on the gender profiling. For alzheimers and the way it effects american families. Very interesting but my first reaction, when i read the numbers was well, a woman is far more likely to live to the age where you move into real hard core alzheimerss danger zone territory. Is there something more than just women outlive mention. It is true that the primary risk factor is age, but there are some promising area areas that w we may need to learn more about gender differences. Are we coming closer you have this piece of evidence over there, are we getting to a point where they are starting to tie up at tends and create a pattern that we can move forward with . Alzheimerss is a really complicated disease, and it is going to require more federal funding, to get to these answers. Thats why getting two appropriate levels of federal funding. Alzheimerss disease received five hung Million Dollars a year, and other major diseases like cancer, and heart disease, are up in the billions. And what we know is that when the appropriate investment is made, Amazing Things happen. Death rates from the other major disease are plummeting, alzheimers mortality continues to rise. The good news is we know we can do it. Because we have before. Jew would hate to pit one group against another, but if we were to look strictly at accounting terms, at the threat that alzheimers provides isnt this a terribly expensive disease to die from . Alzheimerss is the most expensive disease as a lot of reports have now confirms. And it is only going to get more expensive, particularly as baby boomers age. And its really a smart investment to food look for promising treats basic science, to again, unlock these mysteries. So we not just have amazing saving but also the human toll. Game hunt, caring for people in advanced stages of the disease, often involved clinical settings but long before that, a lot of these people are living at home, and being cared for by their own families right. Thats absolutely right. The majority of them are being cared for at home. Typically unpaid. So way see that particularly women, tend to be the one whose are doing the care giving. And a naturalist said that they have a greater degrees of depression. And they also have higher degrees of use of medical services themselves. As the disease progresses in the person they are cares for. They tend to have 25 higher use of physicians, of Emergency Rooms of hospitalizations, and that accounts for 4,700 a year in additional expenses in their health. Thats one thing, but then as you talked about, they also have issues with work. They have up to 300,000 in lost wage, social security, as a result of being a care giver. With someone for whom the disease has progressed a fair bit. This really is a challenging dollar and cents situation, because if you cant forgo work, you have to pay somebody else to be there. Thats right. It is going to cost you one way or another. Thats right. And one of the big issues in this country is we really dont have the support. So theres really not Financial Support for people to have someone provide Companion Care for example. In the home, while you work, and if you quit your job, theres no typically no support for you as the care giver. You might have to go on medicaid yourself. Gael hunt is with me in washington we will take a short break, and when we come back, we will talk about the challenges that remain, in figuring out the origin and the treatment for this devastating disease. This is inside story, stay with us. Has come out to suggest that a greater number than ever consistent of one person, and a few trend that out in the coming decades along with the growing number of people with alzheimerss but a variety of other medical ed nos. Thats a terrible accident waiting to happen in a lot of cases. Oh, no question that will be an issue. How do we as a country plan to help to deal with these people. It becomes an issue of long term care, in general. Or Long Term Services. How are we planning for Long Term Services for people with alzheimerss. Whether they live with the family or whether they live by themselves. We dont have plans for that. We dont have really a plan for how to either support the care giver, or if the person was at home alone lives alone, how are we going to support the patient. Angela its likely in a country where more homes every year more households consistent of one person, that the on set of the disease is going to go undetected, isnt it . Well, one of the interesting things about alzheimerss today is of those 5 million americans living with the disease today, over half of them are undiagnosed yet, its right here as we speak. So the importance of getting an early diagnosis, whether you are living at home, or living with families in order to plan for the future, is a really important one. So as soon as we really encouraging peel the alzheimerss association, as soon as they notice symptoms to go see their physician, so they can get a diagnosis or find out that it is something else. Dr. Petersen, millions of cases undiagnosed is there even a reliable test for alzheimerss. Well, the diagnosis of alzheimerss disease still comes down for a clinical judgement, but i think physicians and clinicians are getting much better at picking up the earlier and earlier signs of the disease. Such that we can pick unearly memory impairment that is likely to go on to be the fully developed alzheimerss disease, and i think by being able to identify the disease earlier, when we get the Effective Therapeutics we can intervene at that point. But theres no blood tests no spitting in a cup, no quick once over from a clinician, that will tell that person oh yeah i am dealing with someone in the early stages of alzheimers. Thats correct. Theres no pregnancy test for alzheimerss disease as we know it right now. As we develop more bio markers, perhaps blood tests will be able to refine the diagnosis quite precisely. Most clinicians are pretty good. When it comes out that Something Like lithium help, do you give that to someone suspected of the disease. Is it too early to take steps like that. I think it is a little early. I think we need to really value wait these through clinical trials. Because kit be dangerous to start a drug like lithium, unless you know it is in fact going to be beneficial. We need to go down the road of a validated trial before we recommend it for treatment. What do we know about what it does inside the body that makes it prompt. Well, lithium has been used for many many years for treating a variety of disorders. Mostly in the psychiatry realm. And it is known to have an effect on the tile protein. And, in fact, lithium is active against the hyper worelated stage, which is the abnormal stage, so it has been considered as a treatment for alzheimers as we said, it does work in other things as well. I am wondering if alzheimerss taking a special toll, because in a way you are losing the person you knew, the memories, the memories you have together as individuals. Jazz someone being treated for heart disease, may know until they bries their lath, exactly who they are, it must be a special burden to take care of someone with alzheimerss. Well, we looked at we did a study looking at the data comparing alzheimerss care givers to other care givers. And theres no question that it can take a special toll. Particularly in terms of depression, and the difficulty of dealing for example, with suffering. The care givers concept of suffering on the part of the person, the part the person with alzheimers may not actually be suffering. But the care giver perceives them as suffering and it take as huge toll on the care giver as a result. Plus, there are all those issues of dealing maybe with children, if this is early on set. Or dealing with children if this is their grandparent, and the grand parent doesnt recognize them any more. So there are family issues in care giving not just say the adult daughter. And theres nobody who teaches you how to do it, is there . A lot of cases you just gradually fall into this role more than you learn what the particular challenges of the disease are. Dont you . Well thats true, and we also did a study that showed that family recognize some symptoms over two years before the person ever get as diagnosis, so families are beginning to see some of these issues of particularly memory loss, maybe judgement, executive function that are occurring. Then the person get as diagnosis, and it can be ten years it can be even longer, but that the person has the disease. And one of the issues is that they dont the care giver may not know what is the progress nose sick, what can i expect, and when i get to a certain stage in the disease, say wandering, or the person is having repettive issues over and over, the family care giver may not know where to turn. They dont know how to deal with the issues. We will take a short break right now, and when we come back, well talk about what the latest research is showing whats promising, what may be just around the corner. This is inside story. In 11 men, and twice asne many are taking care of swung with the disease. On this edition of the program, we are talking about the latest in alzheimers research, and about how the country will deal with an ever growing number of alzheimers patients. Angela, along with this very exciting news about the rest protein, just in the past couple of closer to north mos theres been research that promises to identify genetic markers and people who arent even suffering yet, who have shown no symptoms, are things starting to actually bear fruit . Every couple of years theres new research, or exciting discovery, and people start to excitedly speculate about well, we have turned a corner, we are getting close, going to be able to do something, and im not sure that a lot of that has really changed the trajectory for people who have this disease. Yaw knows to true that it is one of the but people dont realize as much as alzheimers research, is its still a pretty young field. Just over 30 years old. Is most of the major advances. Going from the alzheimerss Association Funding the first am lloyd studies, ten years ago to actually products in the market today. And i think there is a real sense of excitement, i think particularly with a recent gains and increased federal funding, theres hoping there will be more dollars available for promising research. And we certainly know that the urgency could not be more great. With baby boomers entering the age of greater risk, we have to solve this for millions of families and our economic crisis. Like this rest protein research. S there a way that it intersects with things you have already known. That maybe you start to screen people who you find out afterwards had a high level of the rest. Im just sort of doing this off the top of my head. Absolutely. Science is really an incremental process. In fact, it is slowsly accumulated. As angela said, some of the work supported by the alzheimers seeker, has really shown office lob at the underlying nature of the disease. We can now identify people, even when they are normal, and that now is translated into a trial. Thats out there called a four. That is a trial designed to help people that are clinically normal. By having positive scans that would be unheard of five years ago. So we are now at the threshold of trying to do prevention trials to prevent the Cognitive Impairment from even developing. So we are at the threshold, and angela is talked about the need for more money for research, but tomorrow, somebody is going to be diagnosed. What do those care givers need right now. Until we have treatment . Until we have a cure. Care givers no support. So some of the programs that are being funded by the federal government, need to be able to be sure to take care of people who are caring for someone with the disease today. So we need care givers to be able to get respid care, to get a break, they need to be able to have adult day care thats available to them. They need to have money they are received a stippen or payment, like in maryland in the state of maryland, they need to be able to have education and training about this is what the disease is going to mean, this is going to be the trajectory, this is what can be done what you can do as a care giver to help. And here is how you can also be supported in that. Angela, gale hunt, thank you all for joining me. Thank you. That brings us to the end of this edition, thank you for being with us, in washington, im ray swarez. Its christmas eve, and us soldiers are preparing for their last months in afghanistan. About forty thousand are still here by the end of the year, therell be just eight thousand. We traveled to afghanistan in the midst of this transition. But on the base we found a story that isnt being told