TED Talk: Alzheimer's is Not Normal Aging — and We Can Cure It

The TED Talk I watched was about Alzheimer's disease and how 

 in the future there's a possibility it can be 

cured.

I posted the video below, but here is a link in case it doesn't work.

The speaker in the video is a scientist named Samuel Cohen who is

studying neurodegenerative disorders at the University of Cambridge with other scientists. 

Their main goal is to find a cure to Alzheimer's, a disease in which 

40 million people 

in the world are currently suffering from, and will lose their life to. This is due to a lack of funding and research for the disease.

This speech was given in June of 2015 during a TED conference in London. 

In his speech, Cohen gave some background about Alzheimer's disease, talked about some of the research he's been doing, and then talked about the possibility of Alzheimer's being cured.

The audience seemed to be very intrigued with everything Cohen was saying. At some points, some people were even taking notes.

It can be assumed that the members in the audience already know and fully understand the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. However, it can also be assumed that probably not very many people know exactly what Alzheimer's disease is caused from. Almost everyone has heard of Alzheimer's disease and how it causes people to lose their memory. Cohen showed something that many people may not know, and this is how much brain mass Alzheimer's causes patients to lose. 

Alzheimer's disease is caused by proteins that do not fold correctly, causing the protein to essentially poke holes into the brain. This can be seen in the image used by Cohen below. Overtime, these holes will reduce the size of the brain. This will eventually lead to death.

Cohen did a great job of explaining exactly what causes Alzheimer's in the brain and how Alzheimer's can affect brain mass. He made it complex enough for his audience to stay interested, but he made it simple enough so he wouldn't lose any confused audience member.

What really got the audience's attention was when Cohen talked about the advancement of research that him and his team are doing at the University of Cambridge.

This is only a screenshot of a clip in his presentation, so it's difficult to see exactly what is going on. The healthy worms are simply that, healthy. They are shown squirming around and moving like a normal worm would. The Alzheimer's worms in the middle show worms that have the same physical problems in the brain as patients with Alzheimer's do. These worms are barely moving at all. It is very clear that they are sick. The last picture shows these worms with Alzheimer's that have been given a drug that Cohen and his team have been testing. These worms appear as healthy as the original worms.

This is all evidence that shows the possibility of Alzheimer's being cured in the future.

Cohen's speech was very well planned out, and it was genius. 

He used the history of Alzheimer's disease to show that as of now, a person with Alzheimer's disease isn't able to get any more help than the first ever patient diagnosed in 1901. He then described exactly what causes Alzheimer's in the brain. He finishes strong by showing results from his research. 

One way that Cohen could improve would be through body movements. He is slightly awkward throughout the speech. He stands still with his arms at his side almost the entire speech. By walking around a little bit or making slight hand motions, the entire speech would seem less rehearsed. 

- Mollie :)