Alzheimer's Cure by Bill Alpert

June 21, 2007

About a year ago, 's life changed. " At age 46, " he

says, " something like Alzheimer's disease wasn't even on my radar

screen. "

was an information-technology director for a big financial firm

near Minneapolis, a globetrotting " tech weenie. " But he started

forgetting things, losing his sense of time. He could no longer

multitask. More recently, following the Alzheimer's diagnosis,

has noticed his personality changing. Flashes of anger come and go,

for no reason. And his awareness is slipping: He'll think he's having

a good day, only to find out he's forgotten something really

important.

The disease forced him to retire on disability last summer, just

after his twin daughters entered Northwestern University. 's

wife ita doesn't have a job with health insurance. His corporate

health-insurance coverage will run out in about a year. It's too late

for them to get long-term-care insurance, so they'll have to spend

down to the poverty level when he finally needs full-time care.

and ita watched her grandmother die of Alzheimer's

complications, so they know what's ahead. " Neither of us has any

illusions about where this goes, " he says. " It's 100% fatal. "

But those odds may soon improve for Alzheimer's sufferers like .

Large drug companies such as Wyeth have progressed to the point where

they're conducting human studies for numerous treatments that stem

the underlying biological causes of Alzheimer's disease. Smaller

firms like Myriad Genetics and Neurochem are actually in their final

phase of testing drugs aimed at Alzheimer's causes. is

desperate to participate in one of those clinical studies, but the

test designs exclude people under the age of 50.

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