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Anzac Day 2012
Caring beyond honour and
Remembrance
Page 6
Men of God on the sea and on the land
Prepare the way for grace
Last week, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB welcomed US chaplains and sailors to St Mary’s Cathedral (page 5) and spoke to priests at a special meeting for the forthcoming Year of Grace (page 3).
Epidemic on the cards says Bentley parishioner By Glynnis Grainger ALZHEIMER’S disease will be the biggest killer of Australians by 2050, according to leading researcher and Santa Clara Bentley parishioner, Professor Ralph Martins. The professor participated at an international conference held in Perth recently where world Alzheimer’s researchers presented their work on lifestyle factors playing a role in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
There was general consensus, Prof Martins said, that an action plan needed to be developed if Australia was to avert a major Alzheimer’s disease epidemic of over one million people in the next 40 years. “Alzheimer’s disease is going to destroy Australia in 40 years’ time if no effective treatments are found or prevention strategies implemented,” Prof Martins said. “The fabric of Australian society will be severely damaged.”
With those expectations in mind, Prof Martins and the Perth-based McCusker Alzheimer’s Disease Research Foundation he heads are expanding their groundbreaking research to India. A total of 1,600 people from all walks of life are currently being recruited for a major study beginning at the end of the year. “In India, we are starting to recruit people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias as well as healthy controls at five major
centres throughout the country,” Prof Martins said. “This cohort of people will be studied along the lines that have already been established for the Australian imaging biomarkers (AIBL) and lifestyle study of ageing. “It is hoped that through this Indian collaboration we will confirm the blood biomarkers that will form the basis of a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease,” he said. The study’s second major objective will be to identify lifestyle
factors that increase the risk of Alzheimer’s, the professor indicated. The Archives of Neurology, a US journal, recently accepted Prof Martins’ work identifying the panel of blood biomarkers that distinguish Alzheimer’s disease from healthy controls, for publication. “Further studies in other populations throughout the world will determine whether these biomarkers will serve as a diagnostic Continued page 5