By Robbie Owens, November 1, 2024 / 6:05 PM CDT / CBS Texas
DALLAS – If you dare, just look at the numbers associated with Alzheimer’s: nearly 7 million Americans are diagnosed with the disease right now. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the potential lifetime impact is 1 in 3. Gail Youngdale is one of them.
“My mother died with Alzheimer’s,” she told us last summer, “and then my children started saying, ‘Mother, you’re doing the same things.'”
We first met Youngdale after she began taking Leqembi as part of a clinical trial. After acknowledging the decline, she decided that she would meet the angst with action. Leqembi was one of two drugs granted full FDA approval after it was shown that the medications slow the progression of the disease. Youngdale accessed that trial through Dallas-based Kerwin Medical.
“We have more work to do. We have more work to do on prevention,” says founder Dr. Diana Kerwin, “but that is definitely the goal—to increase quality of life, first and foremost.”
Dr. Kerwin is a nationally recognized researcher specializing in Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Now, she’s expanding her medical clinic into Oak Cliff, saying access matters.
“We can’t continue to expect that they’re going to come up to the centers that could be 20 or 30 minutes away,” she explains, adding, “there could be a transportation barrier, or how do I get enough time off of work? And so I wanted to open up a center in Oak Cliff. We found a great building that Emmett Smith was a part of. It’s on Lancaster Road, right across from the VA. Right by the DART station. So we found just the ideal location. I said, ‘This is it.'”
The official clinic opening is scheduled for next week.
“I think that just our presence there, even for someone who is not a part of research, our presence there. We can help educate the community.”
As for the new medications, Dr. Kerwin cautions that Leqembi is not a cure. But patients and their families know that every good day is a gift. Youngdale is using hers to still travel, visit family, and has recently gotten engaged.
“This may not be the cure, but it could be a way to keep it where the disease doesn’t get into the later stages of dementia that we think of,” explains Dr. Kerwin, “and I think that is a big source of hope for everybody.”
If you’d like to learn more or get involved, the Dallas Walk to End Alzheimer’s starts Saturday morning at 8:30 at Dallas City Hall Plaza. You can register for the walk online.