Minding Memory

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Sara Adar. She is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the department of epidemiology. Dr. Adar was the senior author on a study titled “Long-term community noise exposure in relation to dementia, cognition, and cognitive decline in older adults” that was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The study used data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project to examine the association between exposure to community noise and cognitive impairment. We talk with her about how exposure to noise affects cognition. 

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Related Links:   

• CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/  
• Article discussed in this episode: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33084241/ Weuve, J., D'Souza, J., Beck, T., Evans, D. A., Kaufman, J. D., Rajan, K. B., Mendes de Leon, C. F., & Adar, S. D. (2021). Long‐term community noise exposure in relation to dementia, cognition, and cognitive decline in older adults. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 17(3), 525-533. DOI: 10.1002/alz.12191 

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Often research studies consider dementia as either present or absent, while others specify particular types of dementia. For example, what exactly is frontotemporal dementia? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Henry (Hank) Paulson, who directs the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center, to introduce listeners to the most common types of dementia and hear about some of their defining features. For those of you without clinical backgrounds, consider this your crash course on the types of dementia. 

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Related Links:  

• CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/  
• Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center:  https://alzheimers.med.umich.edu/ 

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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In this episode we continue our discussion of the implications of the approval of the Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm (generic name Aducanumab). Our guest this week is Professor Nicholas Bagley. Bagley is a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School and a contributing writer to the Atlantic. Recently he wrote an article titled “The Drug that Could Break American Health Care” that discusses some of the broader (unintended) consequences of the approval of Aducanumab. In this episode we discuss some of the broader cost implications of the new drug.

PRODUCER’S NOTE: Since the recording of this interview, Medicare officials have announced the largest ever dollar-amount rate hike for Part B coverage citing the need to build contingency reserves to potentially cover the Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm. Professor Bagley discusses the concern of the cost of Aduhelm to the US Healthcare System in this Minding Memory episode.  

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Related Links:   

• CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/  
• Atlantic Article – The Drug that Could Break American Healthcare by Nicholas Bagley & Rachel Sachs: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/aduhelm-drug-alzheimers-cost-medicare/619169/ 

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aducanumab is a new drug designed to remove amyloid in the brain. Following an accelerated process, the Food and Drug Administration approved Aducanumab as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease despite (what many experts feel) little evidence of effectiveness. In this episode we discuss the approval of Aducanumab with Dr. Jason Karlawish from the University of Pennsylvania and talk about what it could mean for drug discovery going forward. 

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Related Links:   

• CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/  
• The Problem of Alzheimer’s by Jason Karlawish: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250218742 
• Jason Karlawish Website: jasonkarlawish.com 
• FDA Aducanumab Approval Press Release (June 2021): https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-grants-accelerated-approval-alzheimers-drug 

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we talk with Dr. Ken Langa about the implications of identification of “preclinical” Alzheimer’s disease (situations where individuals may have biological signs of Alzheimer’s but no symptoms). Ken is a leading dementia researcher and our discussion focuses on an article he published called “Preclinical Alzheimer Disease – Early Diagnosis or Overdiagnosis” that was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. In his article co-authored with Dr. Jim Burke, he brings up some of the potential indirect effects of early detection. 

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

RELATED LINKS: 

• CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/  
• National Poll on Healthy Aging: https://www.healthyagingpoll.org/ 
• Article discussed in this episode: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31282928/ Langa, Kenneth M., and James F. Burke. "Preclinical Alzheimer disease—early diagnosis or overdiagnosis?." JAMA Internal Medicine 179.9 (2019): 1161-1162. 

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the podcast! In this episode we introduce ourselves and provide an overview of the Minding Memory Podcast. This podcast is supported by the Center to Accelerate Population Research in Alzheimer’s (CAPRA) at the University of Michigan. Our guest this week is Dr. Julie Bynum. Julie is the director of CAPRA and we talk briefly about what the NIH-funded research center is and how to get involved. 

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Related Links: 

• CAPRA Website:  http://capra.med.umich.edu 

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.