The University Medical Center New Orleans has launched its Healthy Brain Aging Initiative in a partnership between LCMC, LSU and Tulane. Dr. Demetrius Maraganore, chair of the Tulane Department of Neurology, says the initiative will help reduce the number of people living with Alzheimer’s in the U.S., which is predicted to triple by 2050.
“Well, this is a very highly innovative program that’s designed to avert and mitigate the growing Alzheimer’s crisis in the Gulf Coast region, New Orleans and Orleans Parish specifically,” he explains.
Currently, around 207,000 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas live with Alzheimer’s. Louisiana alone has around 92,000 people 65 and older who live with Alzheimer’s.
The initiative has three centers — Alzheimer’s prevention, memory disorders and movement disorders — that focus on prevention, treatment, support and research. Maraganore says the centers are helpful for those at risk of cognitive decline too, as the centers can help answer several important questions such as, “What are their risk factors? What are their genetic factors, but also their modifiable factors? What are the interventions they can engage in to cut their risk for Alzheimer’s?”
Though the initiative’s focus is improving cognitive health in aging patients in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, the program is available to anyone anywhere, whether they know they’re at risk of cognitive decline or not. Maraganore says the program is especially useful for those with Alzheimer’s, as they can “get comprehensive evaluations by a multidisciplinary team and get leading-edge treatments to try to slow the progression of their dementia.”
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