By ELLEN SCHMIDT/Murphy News Service

Participants in the Minneapolis Walk to End Alzheimer’s recently carried four different colors of flowers to represent if they have lost someone to the disease, have been diagnosed, are caring for a patient, or support the cause.

Richard Mayo, Linda Mayo and their family walked for their grandmother, who passed away from dementia, and their daughter-in-law’s mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. They carried purple and blue flowers.

Kelli Martens, a six-year volunteer at the annual walk who sported an orange flower, gave her time because she works with Alzheimer’s patients at an elderly care service.

Danni Li, a researcher and assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, walked to support the cause. She also received a $100,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to conduct research at the University of Minnesota. The research aims to link physical activity and a reduced risk of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are the only causes of death among the top 10 causes in America that have no cure, and can’t be prevented or slowed. In 2015, the conditions will cost the nation $226 billion, a number that is expected to rise to $1.1 trillion by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

The Walk to End Alzheimer’s promotes awareness of the disease and funds research through the Alzheimer’s Association, with 600 walks taking place each year. Minneapolis held the sixth-largest walk in the nation on Sept. 26 at Target Field, bringing in more than 10,000 people and over $1 million in donations. Dr. Li’s research is funded in part by the walk.

The grant will fund Li’s research over the next two years in collaboration with U researchers from public health, pharmacy, biostatistics and nursing.

“I’m the lead on the grant, but my team works together to do well-rounded research,” Li said.

Li’s project looks at levels of protein biomarkers in the brain, and how those numbers relate to the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia. The protein biomarkers, which are called phospholipids or “good fats,” can indicate whether a patient’s cognitive decline will be slowed when treated with exercise—a process known as personalized medicine. She compared the phospholipids to healthy fats such as those found in avocados.

That’s where Fang Yu, a researcher and assistant professor in the U’s School of Nursing, comes in. Yu is leading a clinical trial that puts Alzheimer’s and dementia patients through a six-month cycling program, while testing their cognitive decline through Li’s method and other measures. She became interested in dementia while earning her nursing degree in China. After encountering many patients with cognitive problems during her time there, she found that medical professionals treated patients as though they wouldn’t remember the quality of care they got, because they wouldn’t.

“There’s got to be a better way to take care of this population,” Yu said, adding that she was inspired to research dementia from her personal experience.

During the six-month cycling program that is already in the works, 90 dementia patients partake in 20-50 minutes of maximum-effort aerobic activity three times per week. The patient population has been diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s or dementia.  Throughout the trial and for one year after Yu will test the subjects’ hippocampal volume—the size of their brain’s hippocampus—to measure the effects of exercise on memory and learning.

“The hippocampus is the learning and remembering brain part that looks like a seahorse,” she said. “With Alzheimer’s disease, the size of the hippocampus goes down tremendously.”

By comparing the patients in the control group, who do low-intensity stretching, to the cyclists, Yu will determine if exercise can slow the progression of dementia through hippocampal volume.

Some patients are already experiencing better quality of life.

Yu told the story of an 86-year-old participant living in a care facility that would sing, smile, and talk while he cycled. But, she said the patient wasn’t putting in maximum aerobic effort if he was able to sing, and was removed from the trial. A manager at his care facility said he asked every day why he wasn’t going back to the exercise program, saying he loved it. Seeing direct results from the research before it’s finished is a rewarding part of the job, Yu said.

Caretakers of dementia patients in the trial had good things to say about the effect of exercise on their loved ones.

“We didn’t expect positive feedback from caregivers, but they were saying both sides improved quality of life,” Yu said.

The trial’s end goal is to slow down disease progress and delay nursing home admissions, she said, and ultimately improve dementia patients’ and their families’ quality of life.

Collaboration allows Li and Yu to target two questions at once, Li said. They’re finding out whether exercise can slow the progression of cognitive decline in dementia patients and determining which patients will benefit from it under the same funds and patient population.

The researchers want to make a dent in the ever-growing impact that taking care of dementia patients has on their loved ones and the economy by slowing the progression of disease and improving the quality of life for patients.

“It’s not just about our specific research,” Li said. “It’s a global issue.”

Ellen Schmidt is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.