The Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center is a unique facility, the first of its kind in the United States. Its partner organization, Alzheimer’s Universe at AlzU.org, offers free, online educational lessons for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers and family members.
Read more about the new project educating young students about the disease.
The Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic
The Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic provides an innovative treatment and prevention approach for people who want to lower their risk of getting Alzheimer’s. It’s the first clinic ever to be involved in the prevention aspect of the disease.
Dr. Richard Isaacson, Director of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic, was motivated to start the clinic with a goal of helping people reduce their risks of getting the disease. “My perfect patient is someone like me,” he told CNN News in a recent interview. What he was describing is a person with a family history, with no symptoms of the disease.
At the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic, Dr. Isaacson sees patients of all ages. The youngest patient is 27 (with parents who both have Alzheimer’s). The oldest patient is 91, with siblings who also have the disease. Most of the patients Dr. Isaacson sees at the clinic are adult children with parents who have been diagnosed.
What’s New at AlzU.org
Recently, Dr. Isaacson’s team launched a new program with the potential to impact teenagers and younger generations looking to learn about Alzheimer’s: AlzU.org.
AlzU.org is an educational website featuring the latest information on the disease. The website features a free course that includes 10 lessons, several brain healthy activities and other resources like the Face Name Memory Game, featured on a recent episode of Dr. Oz.
Dr. Isaacson and the staff at AlzU.org hope that by getting information about the disease out to younger generations, earlier diet and lifestyle interventions will be implemented, reducing risks and staving off the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Three new courses will be added to the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic program, including:
- A College Course: Short lessons for college students on Alzheimer’s prevention. Topics will include an overview of Alzheimer’s, how to protect the brain as a person ages and an overview of prevention.
- A Course for Medical Students: Which features longer lessons, including why Alzheimer’s is a younger person’s disease, how doctors can help patients lower their risk and the science behind Alzheimer’s prevention.
- A High School Course: Brief lessons for high school students. The course will include interactive games as well as lessons about the definition of Alzheimer’s, the stages of the disease and an overview of Alzheimer’s prevention.
Overall, the recent Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic program at AlzU.org is aimed at helping to educate young people in the fight against the disease. Online education has the potential to help millions of people currently diagnosed, as well as their family members and others who are at risk.
To sign up for 10 free lessons, visit the AlzU.org website.
Would you take an Alzheimer’s lesson sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic? Why or why not? We’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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