BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. BrainStorm guest Vradenburg, Chairman and Founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer's, sits down with host Meryl Comer for a comprehensive look at the state of Alzheimer's research, advocacy, and care in 2025. Vradenburg addresses critical challenges facing the Alzheimer's community, including threats to NIH funding and the impact of funding instability on researchers and clinical trials. The discussion covers key advocacy efforts like the CHANGE Act and...
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BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. BrainStorm guest Vradenburg, Chairman and Founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer's, sits down with host Meryl Comer for a comprehensive look at the state of Alzheimer's research, advocacy, and care in 2025. Vradenburg addresses critical challenges facing the Alzheimer's community, including threats to NIH funding and the impact of funding instability on researchers and clinical trials. The discussion covers key advocacy efforts like the CHANGE Act and...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. BrainStorm guest Vradenburg, Chairman and Founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer's, sits down with host Meryl Comer for a comprehensive look at the state of Alzheimer's research, advocacy, and care in 2025. Vradenburg addresses critical challenges facing the Alzheimer's community, including threats to NIH funding and the impact of funding instability on researchers and clinical trials. The discussion covers key advocacy efforts like the CHANGE Act and...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. Ep 99: The Future of Alzheimer's Trials: AI, Biomarkers, and Remote Research – John Dwyer, CEO of The Global Alzheimer’s Platform In part 2 John Dwyer, CEO of the Global Alzheimer's Platform (GAP), and BrainStorm host Meryl Comer discuss transforming Alzheimer's research and clinical trials. Dwyer shares how the field is shifting toward earlier intervention and leveraging artificial intelligence to improve trial efficiency and accuracy. AI ca...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. The quest to speed up clinical trials is personal for John Dwyer, CEO of the Global Alzheimer's Platform (GAP). A long-time UsA2 advocate, he’s been motivated by the generations of family members lost to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Dwyer shares with BrainStorm host Meryl Comer the critical challenges of NIH funding cuts by the Trump Administration, forcing many trial sites to shut down at a time of new FDA-cleared blood tests for ear...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. Diane Rehm, the legendary 89-year-old NPR talk show host, discusses her passionate advocacy for medical aid in dying with BrainStorm host, Meryl Comer. Rehm’s view was shaped by her husband John's difficult death from Parkinson's disease and the experience transformed her into a fierce advocate for end-of-life autonomy. She's adamant that if diagnosed with serious illness or early signs of Alzheimer's, she would travel to Switzerland rather t...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. Dr. Rachel Buckley discusses the critical link between menopause and Alzheimer's risk in women with BrainStorm host Meryl Comer. Dr. Buckley explains that early menopause can be associated with faster cognitive decline and higher tau levels in the brain. She emphasizes the importance of timing for hormone replacement therapy and how estrogen plays a vital role in brain health through receptors that regulate communication between brain regions...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. Dr. Rachel Buckley of Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School discusses groundbreaking research revealing stark sex differences in Alzheimer's disease with BrainStorm host Meryl Comer. Her studies found that while men and women show similar levels of amyloid protein, women consistently display significantly higher levels of tau. This discovery has sparked a $50 million Welcome Leap Care grant aimed at cutting Alzheimer's lifetime ris...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this deeply moving episode of BrainStorm by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, Emma Heming Willis shares her intimate journey as a caregiver to her husband Bruce Willis, who lives with frontotemporal dementia. Their conversation covers the progression from early warning signs to diagnosis and the complex decisions required in caregiving - including the heartbreaking but necessary choice to have Bruce live separately to better serve both his needs and t...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this episode of BrainStorm by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Dr. Jonathan Rosand, co-founder of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Harvard discusses his revolutionary approach to preventing brain diseases before they start with host Meryl Comer. Dr. Rosand explains how his work originated from his experience treating severe brain injuries, where he witnessed patients and their families developing depression, anxiety, and PTSD after surviving cri...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this episode of BrainStorm by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Dr. Carolyn Clevenger, Founder and Director of Emory's innovative Integrated Memory Care Clinic continues to explore the complex realities of Alzheimer's caregiving with host Meryl Comer. Dr. Clevenger shares her expertise on recognizing when families need additional support, managing behavioral symptoms without over-medication, and ensuring families remain central to care decisions even i...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this episode of BrainStorm by UsAgainstAlzheimer's, host Meryl Comer explores the critical issue of agitation in dementia care with Dr. Carolyn Clevenger, Founder and Director of Emory's Integrated Memory Care Clinic. Dr. Clevenger provides practical advice for caregivers, emphasizing that documentation of behaviors and triggers is crucial, and that caregivers must learn to adapt. Her innovative approach to dementia care through inte...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. What's the purpose of a long life if our brains can't enjoy it? Paul Irving, Senior Advisor at the Milken Institute on the Future of Longevity and Dean of Faculty at USC's Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, challenges conventional thinking about aging and longevity in a conversation with host, Meryl Comer. Together they address the critical distinction between longevity and brain health and explore why maintaining cognitive function matters...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this episode of BrainStorm, Paul Irving discusses the PBS documentary produced by Bradley Cooper called Caregiving with host Meryl Comer. Their conversation centers on the widespread impact of caregiving in America, where over 53 million people provide unpaid care for loved ones with conditions like Alzheimer's. Irving emphasizes that caregiving is a universal human experience that creates significant economic challenges, with the Milken I...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this episode of BrainStorm, host Meryl Comer talks with Jay Reinstein, a former assistant city manager in North Carolina, about his 12 to15-month journey involving neuropsychological testing and brain scans before being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at age 57. Rather than retreat from public life, Jay transformed his diagnosis into a platform for advocacy, serving on national boards including Voices of Alzheimer’s and lobbying Con...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this episode of BrainStorm Nancy Treaster, a certified caregiving advocate and co-host of The Caregiver's Journey podcast, shares her professional and personal experiences with host Meryl Comer. Their conversation focuses on agitation, one of the most challenging aspects of dementia care, affecting more than half of all Alzheimer’s patients in terms of quality of life while increasing caregiver burden. Treaster emphasizes the importance of...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. This episode of BrainStorm by UsAgainstAlzheimer's features Muffy Walker, a psychiatric nurse, and founder of the International Bipolar Foundation. Her new novel Memory Weavers is based on her professional and personal experiences caring for family members with Alzheimer's disease and issues of mental illness that inspire her advocacy work. Her novel explores how one person with fading memories from Alzheimer's and another with PTSD, wh...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. in this episode of the "BrainStorm" by UsAgainstAlzheimer's, George Vradenburg, Co-founder and Chairman of UsAgainstAlzheimer's, and Russ Paulsen, the organization's Chief Operating Officer, discuss the impact of the Trump administration's policies on Alzheimer's research with host Meryl Comer. The conversation highlights the systematic dismantling of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other critical agencies, which threatens to unde...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. Journalist and author Greg O'Brien, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's over a decade ago, shares with BrainStorm host Meryl his determination to be heard at the Washington D.C. rally at the Lincoln Memorial to protest proposed cuts to NIH biomedical research funding that would critically affect Alzheimer's disease research. Greg also candidly shares what it takes for him to navigate at this late stage in the disease. This episode al...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. In this episode of BrainStorm, host Meryl Comer continues explore the challenges of false Alzheimer's diagnosis in her interview with Doreen Monks, a former neuroscience nurse practitioner. Upon re-examination, Monks' diagnosis was revised eight years later as mixed dementia, but the stigma of Alzheimer's has already taken its toll. Part 2 highlights issues in the dementia diagnosis process, the gap between scientific advances and clinical pr...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. What if your life and career were upended with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s only to learn eight years later that the diagnosis was wrong? In this BrainStorm episode, host Meryl Comer talks with Doreen Monks, a former neuroscience nurse practitioner, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at 63 years old. Doreen shares her emotional and professional experiences, the frustration of misdiagnoses, and the advice she has for others nav...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. Learning about an Alzheimer’s diagnosis in your family is never easy. When you are an iconic music legend like Tony Bennet with legions of adoring fans, it is front page news. Antonia and Johanna Bennett, daughters of the late Tony Bennett, candidly discuss their emotional reactions to learning about their father's diagnosis. They share their concern for their father and fears about their own cognitive futures with BrainStorm host Meryl Comer...
BrainStorm wants to hear from you! Send us a text. BrainStorm guest Vradenburg, Chairman and Founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer's, sits down with host Meryl Comer for a comprehensive look at the state of Alzheimer's research, advocacy, and care in 2025. Vradenburg addresses critical challenges facing the Alzheimer's community, including threats to NIH funding and the impact of funding instability on researchers and clinical trials. The discussion covers key advocacy efforts like the CHANGE Act and...
