Forget Me Not Gala funding memory studies and research

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The memory disorders center at the University of Cincinnati was one of the first in the country focusing on research for treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's and other memory problems.

Their Forget Me Not Gala will take place Friday night, September 30. The event will be a celebration of life for those living with Alzheimer's.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Jason Camp says family photos tell the story of his mom before she began her battle with memory loss and dementia.

“She really doesn't recognize us as family anymore,” said Camp.

His dad took care of her in sickness and in health as the vows say, “I consider dad to be ultimately a victim of Alzheimer’s as he passed away five years ago from a heart attack.”

Part of the reason he was choosing to share his story was so that people will start a conversation about Alzheimer's disease. People do need to care for the caretakers. There are also things being done that’s making progress in research and more importantly in prevention and what everyone can do along the way.

The brain is a muscle that needs to be exercised through simple challenges every day, according to Dr. Rhonna Shatz.

Dr. Shatz, a behavioral neurologist, said, “The parameter you want to use is you have an aha moment, anything that makes you think, ‘Wow, I've never thought of that before,’ or, ‘This is an amazing experience for me.’ It turns on the senses.”

Dr. Shatz is a memory disorder researcher. She is getting support for her work by a team getting ready for their annual Forget Me Not Gala fundraiser. The money they raised helps fund new studies needed for Alzheimer’s.

“One is an advanced imaging study called tow imaging, which we think is gonna be able to detect a lot earlier the changes that occur in Alzheimer's disease in particular,” shared Dr. Shatz. Finding those early could help halt the progression of this disease because, “The changes in the brain precede any type of symptoms by two or three decades.”

If people could see changes when they were 30 in the brain that normally would only show up as symptoms when people were 60, a lot of the supplements and medications geared toward prevention could be started earlier than ever. And maybe people would never develop full blown Alzheimer's.