With help from a new grant, University of Kansas Medical Center researchers will look at how Alzheimer's might be prevented without drugs. Pharmaceutical companies haven’t had much success fighting the disease, which is the most common form of dementia.
KU Med Dr. Jeff Burns will have older high risk volunteers in the study exercise 150 minutes a week. Burns will scan volunteers’ brains to see how exercise affects amyloid protein, which is linked to the disease.
Burns says even if exercise can only hold off Alzheimer’s, it could make a big difference.
“If people are destined to get it, say at 75, and we move that back to 80, then we’ll cut the incidents of Alzheimer’s in half,” says Burns.
Thursday, KU Med announced it had received a $3 million grant for the Alzheimer’s project from the National Institutes of Health.
