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Ashland symposium targets 'epidemic' of brain diseases By BILL KETTLER Baby boomers worried about outliving their retirement income might do well to consider whether they will outlive their brains, says a Portland neurologist scheduled to speak in Ashland on Saturday. As Americans' life expectancy increases, more people will lose brain function as a result of stroke, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological ailments, says Dr. Dennis Bourdette, chairman of the neurology department at Oregon Health and Science University. Bourdette and three other researchers will talk about their work Saturday at the first Wings of Hope Brain Restoration Symposium. "Diseases of the brain are the coming epidemic in this country," Bourdette said in a telephone interview earlier this week. "We worry about Social Security and retirement funds. What we really should be concerned about is outliving our brains. The risk of brain damage gets bigger the older you get. Every year after age 85, you have a 10 percent chance of developing Alzheimer's." Bourdette's research focuses on multiple sclerosis, a disabling and debilitating disease in which white blood cells attack the tissue that insulates the nervous system. Symptoms vary tremendously among individuals. Some people have trouble walking, or can't walk at all. Others suffer from fatigue or have vision problems. Some have occasional flare-ups but carry on nearly normal lives. Others deteriorate steadily. Bourdette has just started studying natural substances that might promote nerve repair in multiple sclerosis patients. He's coming to Ashland to share what he knows, and to hear from other scientists about their work and where they're heading because research in one field may have significant implications in other areas. The symposium is sponsored by the Margot Anderson Brain Restoration Foundation, a project of Ashland's Herm and Mardie Edell. Their daughter, Margot Anderson, suffered massive brain injuries in a 1994 car wreck and died in 1998. The Edells set up a foundation in her name, encouraged by research that suggested there may be more hope for brain-damaged patients than previously thought. Bourdette said the perception still exists that the nervous system is far too complex for researchers ever to fully understand it, and so there's no reason to "waste" money on neurological research. He said nerves that have lost function cannot be restored right now, but that does not mean they never will be. "If we tell ourselves it's hopeless, it will be," he said. "At one time, people thought all the medical advances we've made over the past 100 years were impossible." He turned to his own field of research for examples of conceptual breakthroughs that have changed conventional wisdom. Back in the 1970s, physicians thought that in an adult nervous system, the myelin insulation sheath around a nerve couldn't repair itself, but within a few years physicians realized the myelin does repair itself in the early stages of multiple sclerosis. As the disease advances, the repairs fail. "Just within my own career," he said, "I've seen a dogma proven wrong." Bourdette said two significant developments have helped researchers learn more about brain function. Computer-driven imaging equipment allows them to watch living brains function, and genetic research gives physicians more insight into the origins of some brain diseases. Researchers will use those tools to try to find ways to prevent nerve cells from dying in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke. "I anticipate in the next 10, 20 or 30 years, we'll do a much better job of preventing nerves from dying," he said. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail bkettler@mailtribune.com |
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