telephone call from law school let me know you've been in the courtroom we are full of gold didn't surprise me i saw it coming 10 years before the flood sure i'm now back home on. what does it take to change the course of history and. raising the curtain starts september 30th on d w. hello and welcome to in good shape i love to swim it brings back all my childhood memories all those precious memories of my youth what about you do you feel the same but what if you would lose all those memories because you were affected by a disease called alzheimer's disease in colombia this disease affects villages

. a condo lives in the small village of talmid in colombia but he doesn't really know where he is. or where our. where are we are at home. i can't oh doesn't even recognize himself in the mirror he has a rare genetic mutation which is associated with early onset alzheimer's disease. who you laughing with now what are you laughing at. how i don't know who is joking with. you. i began noticing it when he was about 45 now he's got alzheimer's just like his father did. he cried when he got the diagnosis. but we're all very sad.

by cardoza brothers have come over for lunch the outside of his mutation has been passed down through his family for generations his father died of it 2 of his brothers and one sister have also been affected they all developed the condition and usually early at around 40 i cut o's other siblings are currently healthy but there's a 50 percent chance they too have inherited the gene mutation and they also know that anyone with it seems to invariably develop alzheimer's. to be honest if we don't get it it will be like winning the lottery. alzheimer's disease today the condition has a name but for generations people here talked of a debilitating curse because so many families were affected word of a cluster of people falling prey to memory loss in bell mira and the surrounding villages made its way to francisco look ere at a university in the gene. that 1st we

were just curious we didn't know what to make of it all but one thing was clear to us that this was very significant that paris team set to work combing through. death certificates going back centuries talking to a local priest some family members they were stunned by what they found. this one had it this one died of it this one didn't this one did. they found that in a handful of villages over 25 extended families comprising over a 1000 people who are carrying the genetic mutation that leads to alzheimer's a distressing find but a unique opportunity for the 1st time that doctors can work with healthy people who they know are likely to develop alzheimer's nowhere else in the world is there such a concentration of cases perfect conditions for studying the disease and maybe even

finding a way of preventing it. we might be successful or we might fail either way both outcomes would be very interesting from a scientific point of view. but if we succeeded with we could be on the road to finding an answer to alzheimer's. scientists believe that protein deposits build up between nerve cells in the brain eventually causing the cells to die they want to know whether these deposits can be impeded or even cleared. they are microscopic but the damage they cause is all too visible here we have a healthy brain and it is easy to brain. so. you can see the difference quite clearly the disease brain weighs 600 grams the healthy one weighs about twice that you can see at a glance what has happened to the patient. if you know if we turn it over once again you can see the difference here we see

a cavity has developed while here it's all compact. back to bell meara an hour's drive from. the medical team regularly visits the affected families who are keen to support the research and help fight the disease any progress will come too late for a carde but it could help his son or even his grandchild who's due to be born soon . i don't want to think about it our child will be healthy with god's help. there is currently no cure for alzheimer's this study in columbia has raised hopes of a breakthrough that's not happened yet but the marrying team is still working on it i mean. i'd like to be there when that happens just for the family's sake but it could also lead to further studies into curing or preventing this disease that's the goal. but i'd love to be part of it if that's possible let's hope so. that when

. if those hopes are realized the project could help tip the scales in the fight against alzheimer's. as we've seen alzheimer's not only affects patients but their families as well how to care for patients and their families this is what i'm going to talk about. from the german society and i'm going to turn now. elemis was the ultimate disease it's also called a family disease why is that. people with dementia need more and more help when the mentor progresses and the family members organize everyday life they make

appointments with the doctor. they care for activities they care for care for financial matters and many more things. at the same time maybe they go to work maybe they have own families with little children so. they need lots of commitment and they don't have really much time for themselves and so they are under high social credit to the cope psychological pressure yeah so you see a lot of affected people so what's the main problem. relatives have problems in dealing with the change in behavior off the pace. because this happens when the mentor progresses right so when you feel some memory loss there's a big question is it just a mild forgetfulness or is it also has to cease. and don't seem quite harmless at 1st dabble village golf began to experience memory

problems a little later she was diagnosed with early stage alzheimer's i'm trying in the beginning i was often very sad and down. but then i realized well it has to happen at some point and life has to go on you can't change that it is what it is. that was 18 months ago the 70 year old can't always find the right words or remember what she wants to buy when she's out shopping but fine and large she still manages to get by. sometimes i have problems with my friends for example or forgetting things that happen sometimes. but nothing really bad i don't forget to turn off the tap or anything like that. so touch wood i haven't done anything serious yet.

but babble builds doff knows that things won't stay like this she used to be a nurse and later manage a retirement home so she knows that her memory problems will increase. but no one can say how quickly the disease will progress and how severe it will become. i don't know what things will be like by the end of the year i'd like to visit the baltic on holiday. and maybe somewhere else but i definitely want to do that. and i'll do that sooner rather than later. today she's meeting susanna sachs and from the german alzheimer's society recently bevel village off got involved with the organization it gives her the opportunity to compare her experiences with those of other people with the disease. likes to stay active. in the german alzheimer's society works to improve the lives of people with dementia you organization helps the patients themselves and their families.

we've put together information online if someone gets to mention before the age of 65 it can be especially difficult for the family if children are still at home yeah . i think it's important that people make provision for the time when they can no longer cope alone that will build stoff has already done. and i made a plan with a friend who i've known for a very very long time i work together with him in the hospital. he's the boss there now if something happens to me he'll see to it that i get a. place in a nursing home. that it's good to have something like that and that. there is no cure for alzheimer's patients and their families have to adapt to the disease as best they can one of the worst things is not knowing when your condition

might suddenly deterioration. and i think everyone fears that that's why it's important to make the most of each day. that. shouldn't be said that's pointless. and i think it will help me and you need to meet up with other people and. that's another reason that she got involved with the alzheimer's society bevel village store hopes to meet new people to go out and do things with. it i've always liked to dance but 1st you have to find someone to go with and i don't have a partner even if you have a nice bunch of friends none of them go dancing with me. so if you happen to come to berlin i'd like to dance with this stuff feel free to contact us we've heard a lot about the german alzheimer's society so what actually do you do in this

association how do you help patients and families we ourselves help organization and as the german i'm a society we are the federal aviation off 230 out some associations in germany and to gather our main aim is to improve the life and the life quality of persons with dementia and their families and what is your advice if a patient would phone you or what context you. it depends on the situation he or she is in at this moment so. people that are calling us are mostly the relatives and they are asked for help because. behavior persons with dementia is changing. when he or she has a dementia and this causes lots off conflicts so you giving advice to both to patients and the family of course right and it's not always alzheimer's if your

patients losing his memory it's the other forms of dementia so so you do advice in this direction as well yes we do when someone notices the symptoms of maybe dimentia. memory problems for example we. we advised to go to the doctor because just the medical examination can provide clarity at this moment i mean time is disease is life changing when for both for the patient and for the family so what kind of values can you really give your family to adept with a situation in which you think yeah to adapt with this situation to talk about the situation. to think about the future because dementia progresses. so one of the main problems in everyday life is that is it really like financial matters so much driving license oh. yeah most problems

are caused by the changing behaviors so some persons with dementia sometimes get angry or loud all they still want to drive even though this isn't possible anymore some have the feeling of being dropped and accuse their relatives and handling those mistrust is really hard it's a heavy task so if the disease is not curable right now and it's very hard to treat anyway so one of your advise you could use try to adapt to the next situation but is it really possible to adapt to this kind of serious illness yes it is by that is a process this process took a lot of time and. the family members. have to inform themselves about the dementia when i know dementia memory problems are part of dementia than i can better understand that my husband does not know anymore

where we went for holidays 2 months ago and then i i don't take this personal and react less emotional maybe but it is hard it stays hard and there will be days where my patience breaks because i'm going to be ask the same thing 10 times in 5 minutes. not long ago there was hope on the horizon for alzheimer's patients it was a drug it was a monoclonal antibody but the studies were stopped we sent our chief reporter peter shortcuts to find out what is new in the treatment of alzheimer's. here at the lights exude the apes are a source of fascination for visitors. perhaps it's because our primate relatives are so similar to us. they laugh they play games and express affection much like we do. they also get many of the same illnesses like colds diabetes and even

depression put one condition they don't get is alzheimer's. why is that did something go wrong in the evolution of the human brain. neurologist thomas our friend heads the power flexes institute of brain research in my pick he spent the last 40 years studying out simers diseases. his hosts. you might have a certain genetic disposition which makes it more likely that you'll develop alzheimer's. but it seems that even then the onus only develops if on top of this predisposition other factors come into play such as environmental influences and possibly stress. as a result is a bitch in this place for. as the human brain develops certain areas became particularly pronounced this led to new abilities that are unique to human beings. language is one of them. another is or self-awareness our

sense of our own existence. and our ability to process memory is it's precisely these abilities that are affected by alzheimer's memory is the 1st to go followed by language then the individual cell phone. honest changes and in the end this last completely. numerous possible explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed it's often seemed that a potential treatment was within reach but to this day there's been no decisive breakthrough. as those. one of the reasons for that is that we don't up sufficient understanding of the functions that are affected by alzheimer's such as language memory and self-awareness even in the brains of healthy individuals. at home by going through. once you

realize that you can appreciate how difficult it is to find out why such processes are being disrupted. when you don't fully understand how they work normally. and. studies have focused in particular on 2 protein deposits in the brain beta amyloid plaques and neuro fiber larry tangles made up of a protein called tau. both occur naturally in the body but in alzheimer's patients they disrupt the communication between the nerve cells causing them to die that was long thought to be the cause of the condition but it's quite possible that these plaques are merely a side effect or a consequence of alzheimer's it's a full plate so the challenge remains to find the root causes of alzheimer's i would not assume that the amyloid deposits are the cause. the scientists at the power flex institute study tissue samples and neurons they're particularly

interested in 2 questions what regulates the life cycle of nerve cells in the brain and what might interfere with it and what roles do genes play the researchers found that out samaras patients exhibit increased numbers of neurons with genetic abnormalities but is that a cause or an effect of the disease it's still unclear. thomas aren't believed. that some people are born with a predisposition for us timers what is certain is that changes occur in the brain 20 or 30 years before the 1st symptoms of alzheimer's appear in some cases perhaps even earlier. this leads to the question of whether the disease could be arrested at this early stage but how do you detect affected people if they don't display any symptoms. 6 doesn't these are going to be your model for this is where you turn to biomarkers if this is an area of research that seeks to find biomarkers that can help you to identify patients that are particularly at risk of developing this

disease. his team came up with a blood test for rapid diagnosis which is being developed by a group of biotech companies it focuses on the early phase of alzheimer's before cognitive symptoms appear scientists believe that's where the key to the disease and to potential treatments lies. realistically i have to assume that on the basis of what we know right now we would have to wait at least another generation maybe 30 or 40 years before we have a really effective treatment that addresses the causes of the disease if indeed that's even possible. under doubts about. hops we'll never be able to intervene in the process of alzheimer's disease and the way that we would like to. what really happens in nerve cells in the brain what role is played by genetic variations and environmental factors these things need to be better understood perhaps then we'll know why we're so different from our closest animal relatives

when it comes to time or. no adequate therapy for the next 30 to 50 years so it's very important that we take care of all alzheimer's patients and there are lessons today to make their lives a little bit easier and you're trying to do this for example with discussion groups where to do this. because family members get to know their other family members that experience the same things in their daily life and they learn that they aren't alone with this disease and they. they get tips and hints from the other families and yeah i hear how they tried to deal with some conflicts in everyday life you have a lot of conflicts in the families with the patients and the relatives like aggressive behavior so how do you cope with that. aggressive behavior caused by.

the fact that persons with the mentor assess a situation differently than their family members and they insist on their opinion when the family members also insist on their different opinion then we have those conflicts and the relatives are the only one that can change those situations so that they can try to react patiently they can try to take the fear persons with the mention i feel seriously and yeah maybe calm down the situation especially in the beginning of the disease lot of fear anger and grief so how can you cope with all the diminished. first of all of the listen. to try to find out what in this situation is really. makes the tear off the person with dementia or the family member

and so we also can try to find out what could be relieving which could be helpful at that moment i mean it's a very special disease alzheimer's disease it's a very emotional disease so many of the caregivers simply burn. giving care so hope. can you prevent a great knowledge. with help and support and with help and support from the beginning of the disease on. because so we can somehow counteract the overwork or the only onus off the caregivers at some point it may not be possible to keep the outsiders patient inside the family so you have to give them away to a nursing home to professional caregivers and this is a big huge step because the dress is not a conflict so so what's your advice that. the families don't make this decision

easily easily they make it when there's no alternative anymore then their conflict stays of course and again. it helps to go to a self-help group to exchange with other. relatives or to use a counseling service or something like that would you like to know if you later in your life will get alzheimer's disease no i don't want to know it because there's no there's no adequate therapy right now i don't want to know if i'm going to get dementia and i do understand this. if you've got any questions you like me to ask oh experts be sure to write meaning me. on an upcoming show we'll be talking about choosing the right sport something to collectivities are better than others in helping us deal with particular illnesses send in your questions to in good shape d.w. dot com just write sports in the subject line we look forward to hearing from you.

many people are afraid if they have relatives with alzheimer's disease that they will get all the time with themselves so what you suggest it is important to know that. most of the. disease is not caused by genetic. reason. the 08. the highest risk factor. you could say and if you want to do something. guarding. it it's important to yeah to have adequate exercise a balanced diet to stay active socially. to treat knowing diseases like treasure are something like that thank you so much for this very interesting talk on this very difficult matter. and that's it for today see you next week and until then let's all try to stay in good shape.

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