If you could ask an Alzheimer’s researcher anything, what would you ask?
Well, now you get the chance!
We’ve been offered the opportunity to send seven questions to an Alzheimer’s researcher, who will then send back his answers for us to share on Caregiving.com. The researcher is Dr. Michael Rafii, MD, PhD, co-director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at UCSD Perlman Ambulatory Care Center in La Jolla, Calif., and Assistant Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Rafii is also the Associate Medical Core Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) specializing in cognitive disorders, including dementias such as AD. The Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study is part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Grand Opportunity (ADNI GO), which researches early clues to the progress of Alzheimer’s disease.
(We wrote about ADNI a few weeks ago; it’s a collaboration between researchers from pharmaceutical companies and academia. You can read more here.)
I would love to ask this question: It’s terrific we have funding that will help families and patients in the future with either a treatment or a cure. How can we use research dollars to help those family caregivers struggling to care for a person with Alzheimer’s disease today?
So… What would like to know about the research being done to find treatments and a cure for Alzheimer’s disease? What would you like to know about Alzheimer’s disease? Please post your questions in the comment section below. I’ll choose the seven most-frequently asked and then send them off to be answered. And, I’ll post the answers as soon as we receive.
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You are a disruptor. The delivery of health care starts with you, continues because of you, and ends with you. Let's disrupt together to make the world better for family caregivers. 
G-J
My husband has Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). My questions are:
1. What can a person with MCI or EOAD do to keep from getting worse? I already know to take the prescribed medications, eat a healthy diet (what’s good for the heart is good for the brain), exercise, exercise the brain, and socialize, but what else can a person do?
2. If you don’t like fish, are fish oil tablets a good substitute and is there any point in taking those to help the brain?
3. What studies are being done or planned to study the effects of diet and or exercise on MCI patients? I’d happily volunteer my husband for one of these studies that did not include an experimental drug. I’d even learn how to cook fish! (See question #2.)
4. Has anything in common been found in MCI patients? I’ve now met a few people with MCI, and each one has completely different symptoms, or behaviors due to the illness.
5. People with MCI still have a lot to offer to society. What can we do to help them figure out what that is and how to put their skills to work? At 56 years old, my husband wants to go back to work, not be on disability for the rest of his life!
I’ll stop with those questions, but Denise, let me know if you want more!