Joining a Long-Term Dementia Study

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As part of the brain health class I am taking, a researcher from the University of California in Irvine MIND program encouraged us to sign up for a long-term study on dementia. UCI MIND is one of 30 Alzheimer's Research Projects across the United States which are funded by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. This means that millions of other people in the United States may also live near an Alzheimer's Research Project and be eligible to get annual cognitive assessments, brain scans and blood tests which the researchers will use to see if they can find markers for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. I filled in the online registration form and will be interested to see if I get chosen. They asked a lot of questions about family background (my mother died of Alzheimer's), my health, and my willingness to take experimental medications and get brain scans. I said yes to the scans, but no to the medications. They also asked if I was willing to have my brain autopsied after my death, looking for signs of the plaques and tangles they think cause Alzheimer's Disease. I said no to that, but I might change my mind in the future. At the top of this page, I posted a photo of the map of where the Alzheimer's Research Centers are located. This map came from the National Institutes of Health website, so you can see if you might live near one of the Research Centers and find out if you qualify for a study, too. I think the information will be interesting and could help other people, someday.