University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: Dementia Risk, Diagnosis and Early Detection

SPRINT to a Healthy Mind: How Blood Pressure Control Affects Brain Health and Dementia Risk

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Geriatrician Dr. Mark Supiano joins the podcast to discuss the connection between heart and brain health. Citing multiple clinical trials, he breaks down what these studies and their findings mean for blood pressure management’s effect on cognitive decline and how they directly impact both patients and clinicians.

Guest: Mark A. Supiano, MD, geriatrician, University Hospital Geriatrics Clinic, professor, Internal Medicine, Utah School of Medicine

New Study Examines the Effects of Food Insecurity on Dementia Risk

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The latest Household Food Security report estimated that 13.7% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity in 2024. This lack of access to a nutritious diet can significantly affect health, so how does it then impact older adults’ health and their risk for cognitive impairment? Dr. Heejin Lee joins the podcast to share what food insecurity means, how it can affect a person’s overall health and what her study found about its effect on dementia and cognitive impairment, as well as resources for those experiencing food insecurity.

Guest: Heejin Lee, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow, department of nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

On the Pulse: How Resting Heart Rate Improves a Dementia Risk Score’s Accuracy

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What if your heartbeat could help determine your dementia risk? The CAIDE dementia risk score has long helped clinicians estimate midlife risk for dementia using cardiovascular health factors, but its accuracy hasn’t been equal across populations. New research suggests that integrating resting heart rate meaningfully improves predictive performance across most racial groups. In this interview, Dr. Newman Sze and Shakiru Alaka join us to dig into how and why resting heart rate enhances CAIDE’s accuracy, what the data shows across different racial groups, and what this could mean for earlier, more equitable identification of dementia risk in both research and clinical settings.

Guests: Newman Sze, PhD, professor of health sciences, Brock University, Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, and Shakiru Alaka, MS, senior analyst, Canadian Institute for Health Information, data scientist, Western University

Family Ties: How Family History Affects Alzheimer’s Risk

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How important is one’s family history when determining Alzheimer’s risk? Returning guests Drs. Jessica Langbaum and Sterling Johnson discuss the latest research on family history and genetic risk factors and share their perspectives on the topic, specifically focusing on the role of the APOE gene as a risk factor.

Guests: Sterling Johnson, PhD, leader, Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP), associate director, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, associate director, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute, lead principal investigator, ADRC Consortium for Clarity in ADRD Research Through Imaging (CLARiTI), Jean R. Finley Professor of Geriatrics and Dementia, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and Jessica Langbaum, PhD, senior director of research strategy, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, overseer, Observational Research Program, Clinical Trials Program, Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative, director, Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry, director, Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

Talking about Tau: The Role of Tau PET Scans in Alzheimer’s Research and Care

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Early detection is a top priority in the field of Alzheimer’s research, and one indicator of Alzheimer’s disease is the buildup of tau in the brain. What is tau, though? How can we detect this protein, and what can it tell us about a person’s symptoms or disease progression? Dr. Gil Rabinovici, a leader in the field of brain imaging, joins Dementia Matters this week for an in-depth discussion on the role of tau PET scans in Alzheimer’s disease detection, research and clinical care.

Guest: Gil Rabinovici, MD, professor, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), director, UCSF Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, study chair, Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) and New IDEAS studies, co-principal investigator, Alzheimer’s Network for Treatment and Diagnostics (ALZ-NET), Longitudinal Evaluation of Alzheimer’s Disease Study (LEADS)

What Now? Next Steps After Receiving an MCI Diagnosis

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What exactly does a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) diagnosis mean, and what should you do after receiving one? Hearing this diagnosis from a doctor can bring up a lot of emotions and questions for individuals and family members. Jennifer McAlister joins Dementia Matters to offer advice for next steps after receiving an MCI diagnosis and share strategies and resources that have been successful for individuals she’s worked with over the course of her career.

Guest: Jennifer McAlister, outreach and partnerships manager, Outreach, Recruitment & Engagement Core, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

Could AI Identify Alzheimer’s Risk Factors from Electronic Health Records?

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With the recent surge in artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, one of the most exciting fields it could revolutionize is health care and, more specifically, the field of cognitive care and research. Dr. Marina Sirota and Alice Tang join the podcast to share their research on how AI could be used to predict one’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease based on their electronic health records. They also discuss what needs to be done to improve these algorithms and other ways this technology could be used in Alzheimer’s disease research.

Guests: Marina Sirota, PhD, associate professor, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), principal investigator, Sirota Lab, and Alice Tang, MD/PhD student, University of California San Francisco, postdoctoral fellow, Sirota Lab

The Future of Fluid Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

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The field of biomarkers is constantly evolving, leading to developments in diagnosing and treating different kinds of dementia, but what exactly are biomarkers and how has our understanding of these measures changed over time?  Dr. Henrik Zetterberg joins Dementia Matters to talk about the latest updates in research on fluid biomarkers. Dr. Zetterberg goes in depth on the role and properties of different biomarkers and how new measures and tools, like blood tests, are impacting diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Guest: Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD, professor of neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, University College London, visiting professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Biomarker Core co-leader, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

Taking a Closer Look at Cognitive Decline and Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

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Dr. Reisa Sperling returns for another episode of Dementia Matters. After covering her research focused on preclinical Alzheimer’s disease in part one, Dr. Sperling dives deeper into the different factors that can impact cognitive decline and early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and how clinical trials are shaping the field’s understanding of detecting, treating and preventing the disease.

Guest: Reisa Sperling, MD, director, Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment (CART), co-principal investigator, Harvard Aging Brain Study, principal investigator, Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC), co-leader, A4 Study, co-leader, AHEAD 3-45 Study, professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School

Defining and Addressing Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

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What if there was a way to detect Alzheimer’s disease before clinical signs and symptoms even appeared? Dr. Reisa Sperling joins Dementia Matters for a two-part series covering her research on detecting and treating Alzheimer’s disease at the earliest possible stage, known as preclinical Alzheimer’s. In this episode, Dr. Sperling goes in-depth on amyloid and tau proteins and the implications on early detection and treatment strategies for Alzheimer’s disease.

Guest: Reisa Sperling, MD, director, Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment (CART), co-principal investigator, Harvard Aging Brain Study, principal investigator, Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC), co-leader, A4 Study, co-leader, AHEAD 3-45 Study, professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School

Predictive Personalities: How Personality Traits Influence Dementia Risk

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While genetics and lifestyle can influence one’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, other unexpected factors can shift the possibility. One of these factors is personality. Dr. Emorie Beck joins Dementia Matters to share her research on the link between personality and Alzheimer’s risk. Dr. Beck breaks down the Big Five traits that make up someone’s personality and their effects on a person’s cognitive health. 

Guest: Emorie Beck, PhD, assistant professor, University of California, Davis

REVEALing APOE Results: Making Genetic Disclosures in Alzheimer’s Research

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On this episode of Dementia Matters, Dr. Scott Roberts talks about disclosing genetic test results for APOE, a gene that can increase one’s likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease. While this information can be concerning, Dr. Roberts shares that it can empower individuals to take the necessary precautions to lower their risk of developing the disease. He discusses the Risk Evaluation and Education for Alzheimer’s Disease (REVEAL) study, walks us through the APOE disclosure process and shares how it is evolving with the development of new Alzheimer’s treatments.

Guest: Scott Roberts, PhD, interim chair, professor of health behavior & health education, University of Michigan School of Public Health

Listen Up! The Connections Between Hearing Loss, Hearing Interventions and Cognitive Decline

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Hearing loss affects roughly 15.5% of Americans 20 years and older. While the majority of these individuals experience mild hearing loss, the prevalence and severity of hearing loss increases with age. What does this sensory change mean for dementia risk, and can this risk be prevented through interventions like hearing aids? Dr. Frank Lin joins the podcast to discuss the relationship between hearing loss and dementia and share findings from the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders, or ACHIEVE, study.

Guest: Frank Lin, MD, PhD, director, Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, Professor of Otolaryngology, Medicine, Mental Health, and Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University

Do Non-Medicinal Interventions Reduce Dementia Risk? Studies are Inconclusive, Here’s Why

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In 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a report showing promising but inconclusive evidence suggesting that interventions like cognitive training, blood pressure control and increased physical activity reduce a person’s risk for dementia, but what does the research show now? Dr. Luke Stoeckel from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) joins the podcast to share where the research on lifestyle interventions is at, why studies on these interventions are difficult to complete and more.

Guest: Luke Stoeckel, PhD, program director, Mechanistic and Translational Decision Science Program, Division of Behavioral and Social Research (DBSR), NIA