A little while later, Blackwell, 66, rests in the shade of a gazebo at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Va., where he enjoyed a balmy late summer morning recently, snapping images of nature.
"Doing this …" he says, gesturing to the cameras slung around his neck and then spreading his arms out toward the lake and rolling green hills surrounding him, "It makes me forget. It makes me happy."

It's not often Blackwell will tell you forgetting is a good thing. He has Alzheimer's disease, a memory-robbing illness that pushed the former CIA analyst into early retirement, and these days makes him forget the words to his favorite church hymns and the name of the bird he just photographed. But when he's behind the lens of his camera, it's his disease he forgets.

Blackwell is among many people who suffer from some form of dementia who are pursuing fine-arts activities — including photography, painting and music. Patients, their caretakers, Alzheimer's doctors and arts-program organizers say the benefits of taking up a brush, viewing a masterpiece or hearing the strains of a classical arrangement are multi-faceted.

"An art or music experience is another way to give people a vehicle to express themselves, to communicate feelings they might not be able to share verbally anymore," says Beth Kallmyer, director of Family and Information Services for the Alzheimer's Association.
These aren't arts-and-crafts sessions involving Popsicle sticks and paste, say those who lead such programs. Major museums and symphony halls are involved, as well as professional artists.

"Our program has integrity. We're using archival materials and brushes. It's not a craft program. We really believe people with dementia deserve high-quality materials, high-bond watercolor paper," says Joanne Fisher, the statewide coordinator and event manager for "Memories in the Making," an Alzheimer's Association of Colorado series that collaborates with professional artists from the state to help patients produce and sometimes sell their artwork.

Fisher says the program began 15 years ago with five sites and has blossomed to more than 85 locations in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and community centers throughout the state.

Elsewhere, museums and symphonies are opening their doors to those with dementia. In Phoenix, Banner Alzheimer's Institute began collaborating with the Phoenix Symphony, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art two years ago, inviting people with mild to moderate dementia and their caretakers to attend regularly scheduled tours and performances. Pre-concert discussions by musicians and post-tour seminars occur during normal business hours because Banner's project coordinators say they wanted attendees to gain a feeling of belonging.

"There's a real sense of isolation about these folks, that they're separate and that they stand out. We wanted them to feel like they're like everybody else," says Jan Dougherty, director of family and community services at Banner.
Vicki McAllister, research and program coordinator at Banner, says they've been studying the effects of the programs on the well-being of more than 144 participants, half with dementia, and half who are caretakers. "Many say they've found a venue where they can stop the hectic pace of doctor appointments and fears of the future, and be more in the moment together," McAllister says.
Howard Grossman, 82, and his wife Connie, 76, who has Alzheimer's, attended the Phoenix Art Museum program and enjoyed it so much they now go back weekly on their own.

TOMM40 increases risk of developing the disease

A UC Irvine study has found that a gene called TOMM40 appears twice as often in people with Alzheimer's disease than in those without it. Alzheimer's, for which there is no cure, is the leading cause of elderly dementia.

Having the harmful form of TOMM40 significantly increases one's susceptibility when other risk factors - such as having a gene called ApoE-4 - are present, the new study reports. People who have ApoE-4 are three to eight times more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

"The TOMM40 gene influences the ease with which molecules can get in and out of mitochondria, the energy production center and stress mediator of cells. TOMM40 also processes materials that form amyloid plaque, a hallmark of Alzheimer's," said Dr. Steven Potkin, lead author of the study and UCI psychiatry & human behavior professor.

"With aging, the number and function of mitochondria decrease, accompanied by a parallel increased risk of developing Alzheimer's," he said. "This study points to the use of mitochondrial-based therapies for treating the disease."

The study will be published Aug. 7 in the journal PLoS One.

Supporting the UCI discovery is research presented recently at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Austria. Duke University scientists found that patients with TOMM40 developed Alzheimer's an average of seven years earlier than those without the gene.

In addition to Potkin, who is also the Robert R. Sprague Chair in Brain Imaging and director of UCI's Brain Imaging Center, UCI scientists Dr. Fabio Macciardi, Guia Guffanti, Dr. Anita Lakatos, Jessica Turner, Dr. Frithjof Kruggel and James Fallon worked on this study.

They collaborated with Andrew Saykin of Indiana University, Dr. Michael Weiner of UC San Francisco and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative patients and investigators.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the National Institute on Aging, the National Center for Research Resources and an anonymous foundation.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,200 staff. The top employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $4.2 billion. For more UCI news, visit http://today.uci.edu/.

Study of more than 37,000 patients shows relationship between atrial fibrillation and development of Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City believe that they have made a breakthrough connection between atrial fibrillation, a fairly common heart rhythm disorder, and Alzheimer's disease, the leading form of dementia among Americans.

In a study presented Friday, May 15, at "Heart Rhythm 2009," the annual scientific sessions of the Heart Rhythm Society in Boston, researchers unveiled findings from the study of more than 37,000 patients that showed a strong relationship between atrial fibrillation and the development of Alzheimer's disease.

The study, which drew upon information from the Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study, a vast database from hundreds of thousands of patients treated at Intermountain Healthcare hospitals, found:

• Patients with atrial fibrillation were 44 percent more likely to develop dementia than patients without the heart disorder.

• Younger patients with atrial fibrillation were at higher risk of developing all types of dementia, particularly Alzheimer's. Atrial fibrillation patients under age 70 were 130 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

• Patients who have both atrial fibrillation and dementia were 61 percent more likely to die during the study period than dementia patients without the rhythm problem.

• Younger atrial fibrillation patients with dementia may be at higher risk of death than older AF patients with dementia.

Intermountain Medical Center cardiologist T. Jared Bunch, M.D., the study's lead researcher, presented the findings at the scientific session.

"Previous studies have shown that patients with atrial fibrillation are at higher risk for some types of dementia, including vascular dementia. But to our knowledge, this is the first large-population study to clearly show that having atrial fibrillation puts patients at greater risk for developing Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Bunch.

Alzheimer's is a devastating brain disease affecting approximately 5.3 million Americans. It is the most common form of dementia (a general term for life-altering loss of memory and other cognitive abilities), and accounts for 60-80 percent of all dementia cases. Today, it is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

Currently, the known risk factors for Alzheimer's are age, family history and genetics, though injury may also be linked with the disease. Heart health has long been suspected to play a role, but has not been linked. The Intermountain Medical Center study bolsters that connection.

"The study shows a connection between atrial fibrillation and all types of dementia," said Bunch. "The Alzheimer's findings — particularly the risk of death for younger patients — break new ground."

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm problem, affecting about 2.2 million Americans. It occurs when the heart beats chaotically, leading blood to pool and possibly clot. If the clot leaves the heart, a stroke can result.

The Intermountain Medical Center study looked at five years of data for 37,025 patients. Of that group, 10,161 developed AF and 1,535 developed dementia during the study period.

The study authors say more research is needed to explore further the relationship between atrial fibrillation and the development of Alzheimer's disease.

"Now that we've established this link, our focus will be to see if early treatment of atrial fibrillation can prevent dementia or the development of Alzheimer's disease," says cardiologist John Day, M.D., director of heart rhythm services at Intermountain Medical Center and a co-author of the study.

Intermountain Medical Center is the flagship medical and research facility for Intermountain Healthcare, a nationally-recognized nonprofit system of hospitals, surgery centers, doctors, and clinics that serve the medical needs of patients throughout the Intermountain West.