Nursing homes as research labs for dementia

The opening statement of the Report entitled “Nutritional Strategies to Combat Alzheimer’s” in the March 2013 issue of Life Extension Magazine, reads as follows:

“Someone in America develops Alzheimer’s every 68 seconds. This rate is projected to more than double by 2053, to one every 33 seconds.”

Since we in Canada have roughly 1/10th of the US population, the corresponding rate for Canada should be roughly one tenth that of USA.

In a recent radio and TV announcement, Canadian health officials outlined the costs of treating Alzheimer’s from the current 30 billion annually to over 300 billion within a couple of decades.

After reading this article, and with my recent attendance at a nursing home meeting where the CEO of that nursing home outlined plans for bed expansion, it occurred to me that nursing homes with their unique resident profile (compared to patients in hospitals or medical offices), might be excellent ‘labs’ to conduct clinical research on Alzheimer’s disease.

When I reviewed my blog, I found a post where I gave some statistics on incidence of dementia, and also my plans for to develop a podcast.

I have experience in the field of genetics and gerontology. I set up 3 private medical research Labs, including the Winnipeg Clinic Research Institute, the Kildonan Institute of Gerontology, and a private Cytogenetic diagnostic Lab. During my research career, I published over 40 scientific papers. Since the mid-1990’s as a medical educator, I have used the information gathered from various sources to develop various tools such as presentations, websites and blogs and videos to share to share my knowledge and interest in research and life extension. Sources I have leveraged include the Life Extension Foundation, Wellness magazine, A4M, etc., as well as my personal library of over 500 volumes, my clinical practice of over 30 years, and more than 20 years of experience treating elderly patients at the Holy Family Nursing Home in Winnipeg, Canada.

Realizing the importance of medical research in 2000, I set up the Semeon Hrushovetz Endowed Fund at the University of Manitoba which purchases books in the area of gerontology and complementary and/or alternative medicine for the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library.

Many current investigators, especially those engaged in life extension research, discovered the important role of nutrition in aging (e.g. Vitamin D and Alzheimer’s).

Another area is the field of searching for biological markers for aging and use them to test if anti-aging therapies are valid. Many of these studies, especially those related to biological markers of aging, could very easily be conducted at a nursing home.

I feel the Holy Family Nursing Home with its expansion program provides an excellent opportunity to establish such a unique research centre. I would be interested in an opportunity to discuss this idea with the nursing home’s board or building committee.