Alzheimer's: a century of bafflement
Ex-astronaut raises a glass to battle Alzheimer's

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Former Canadian astronaut Dr. Roberta Bondar has this image of being like everyone's squeaky clean aunt. She is fond of saying things like science is good for girls, that you should eat well and get lots of exercise. But on this sunny morning in both Toronto and Vancouver, she is on the telephone from the eastern city, touting the benefits of cabernet sauvignon wine. Once a navigator of the skies, Bondar is now an explorer of the earth.
The latest research, she says, indicates the wine can help to prevent and stall the effects of Alzheimer's disease. Who knew? Alzheimer's awareness happens to be Canada's first female astronaut's latest earth-bound mission.
It's a timely one, too. The year 2006 marks the hundredth anniversary of the identification of the degenerative brain disease by Dr. Alois Alzheimer. In a study in 1906 that broke new ground in knowledge about dementia, German doctor Alois Alz-heimer presented the case history of a 51-year-old woman, Auguste D. Alzheimer presented his findings at a conference at the University of Tuebingen in November 1906. But for the next eight decades knowledge of the disease that bore his name stayed to a large degree unchanged.

On Thursday, which is World Alzheimer's Day, she will be hosting a public forum on the disease at Vancouver's Italian Cultural Centre. It is the fourth in a series of public forums called Mission for Memories across Canada to promote awareness of the disease and to encourage people to seek treatment.
With the greying of Canada's population, the ravages of the devastating illness are sure to be more widely felt. The creeping, incurable brain disease gradually robs sufferers of their memories and ability to care for themselves. Loved ones may be forgotten. The disease is always fatal. Nancy Reagan described the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan's decline as "the long goodbye."
Health Canada forecasts almost a doubling in the number of people suffering from Alzheimer's and other dementias over the next two decades, to 772,000 in 2026 from 435,000 this year.
So does that mean we should all head out and stock up on cabernet sauvignon?
Bondar, for one, has some in her cupboard. "It is one of my favourite grapes," said the esteemed neurologist and 60-year-old native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. She added with a laugh, "I probably won't be putting a straw through the cork or putting it into an i.v. drip, but I find it very interesting."
What Bondar is referring to is a recent study from the Mount Sinai school of medicine in the U.S. in which wine was added to the drinking water of mice with a genetic mutation for Alzheimer's disease.
It acted as a kind of cleanser for a gooey protein called beta-amyloid, which builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The plaque is a hallmark of the disease.
The results are to be published next month. Then the clinical studies will begin. This is just one of the recent discoveries about the disease, says Bondar.
Not that she is advising Canadians to go out on a wine-drinking bender. While Alzheimer's is incurable, there is more and more evidence, she says, that it might be at least partly preventable.
There are a number of studies indicating that people with a higher educational level, which is suggestive of a higher level of cognitive function, are less likely to get Alzheimer's disease.
Also, there is a higher incidence of Alzheimer's among diabetics who have vascular disease. This suggests that treatment of disorders affecting blood vessels, such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, could be helpful in preventing Alzheimer's.

Today, though, the news about this darkest of diseases burns with a flame of hope.
Alzheimer's is being attacked on so many fronts that some researchers, while balking at talk of a cure, believe a treatment to slow or possibly stop its clinical advance is tantalisingly within reach.