Action News Jax
by Meghan Moriarty

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found Alzheimer's-related damage is actually caused by both when it starts and where it starts in the brain. Steve Waterhouse's wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at 54. He didn't notice memory loss, but he did see she was mixing up numbers in their company's finances. "All of a sudden, her performance was slipping, and that had never happened," Waterhouse said. Dr. Melissa Murray specializes in early onset Alzheimer's research. She said new research is showing that those who get the disease early aren't necessarily having memory issues, but instead having trouble with calculating numbers, behavior changes and imbalance.

Reach: ActionNewsJax is WAWS-TV/30, a Fox affiliate, and WTEV-TV/47 is a CBS affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida.

Context: Melissa Murray, Ph.D. is a Mayo Clinic researcher in Mayo Clinic's Translational Neuropathology Lab. Dr. Murray and her colleagues use a multidisciplinary approach that integrates neuropathology, neuroimaging and genetics to investigate neurocognitive disorders (Alzheimer's disease), parkinsonian disorders (dementia with Lewy bodies) and motor neuron disorders (Lou Gehrig's disease). Dr. Murray is specifically interested in the effect of brain aging overlaid with a neurodegenerative disorder. The lab has revealed striking differences regarding vulnerability or resilience in affected individuals, especially in the setting of Alzheimer's disease.

Contact: Kevin Punsky

Tags: ActionNewsJax, alzheimer's disease, Dr. Melissa Murray, Uncategorized