AARP Hearing Center
![Judi Polak with the team from the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute Judi Polak with the team from the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/health/conditions-treatments/info-2019/ultrasound-alzheimers-clinical-trial-judi-polak/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/container_image/articlecontentfragment/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/health/brain_health/2019/12/1140-judi-polak-wvu-rockefeller-neuroscience-institute.jpg)
Almost 6 million Americans live with Alzheimer's, a devastating disease for which there is no known cure. Judi Polak, 62, is one of them. She's also one of the much smaller number of people who've signed on to let researchers experiment on their ailing brains — in her case, having ultrasound energy beamed into her hippocampus, the brain's memory center.
Perhaps surprisingly, Judi didn't think twice about joining the groundbreaking clinical trial, which she describes as part of her active fight against the disease she was diagnosed with four years ago. “We all have a lot of inner strength,” Judi says of her family (which includes her husband, Mark Polak, three grown daughters and two dogs). “One of our good friends said that the first person to [one day] be cured with Alzheimer's is alive today. That became our mantra and fight song. I choose not to suffer, not to die, but to fight."
![member card Image Alt Attribute](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/experience-fragments/uxdia-folder-structure/en/features/membership/inline-membership-promo/default/master5/_jcr_content/root/responsivegrid/container_copy/container/articleimage.coreimg.75.1140.png/content/dam/uxdia/membership-card-d-and-t.png)
LIMITED TIME OFFER: Labor Day Sale!
Join AARP for just $9 per year with a 5-year membership and get a FREE Gift!
It's a fitting motto for a woman whose husband describes her as a “butterfly on acid.” “Before Judi's diagnosis, I'd joke that Judi didn't just burn the candle on both ends — she set fire to the middle,” Mark says.
As a neonatal nurse practitioner at the West Virginia University (WVU) hospital who also taught at the nursing school, Judi first began experiencing Alzheimer's symptoms related to coming up with a word or figuring out basic math. “I just thought I had depression because I was having trouble putting things together,” she recalls. “The Alzheimer's diagnosis slammed me in my face. I kept thinking, ‘This can't be happening to me. I'm 58, with no family history.’ There was a lot of denial."
It didn't help that the Polaks felt that the specialists they consulted were extremely negative about her prognosis. “I felt like all the experts were advising Judi to sit at home and not do anything,” recalls her husband. “But that's not Judi. She's always had an extremely full life.” When they learned about a potential clinical trial taking place at WVU, the couple jumped at the chance to join it. “When I was wheeled into the MRI room last October and saw a sea of people watching me, it really overwhelmed me,” Judi recalls. “It wasn't just for myself — it was a chance to make history."
![Medical experts working on a clinical trial that explores focused ultrasound, which opens up the blood–brain barrier in Alzheimer’s patients Medical experts working on a clinical trial that explores focused ultrasound, which opens up the blood–brain barrier in Alzheimer’s patients](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/health/conditions-treatments/info-2019/ultrasound-alzheimers-clinical-trial-judi-polak/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par5/body_one_callout_one/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/health/brain_health/2019/12/1140-judi-polak-procedure.jpg)
“One of our good friends said that the first person to [one day] be cured with Alzheimer's is alive today. That became our mantra and fight song. I choose not to suffer, not to die, but to fight.”
The treatment being tested, known as focused ultrasound, opens up the blood-brain barrier, the semipermeable membrane that surrounds blood vessels in the brain. This barrier is necessary to keep out germs, but it also prevents potential Alzheimer's drugs from reaching the brain. “This is one reason why we think past medication treatments for Alzheimer's have not been effective,” says neurosurgeon Ali Rezai, director of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at the WVU School of Medicine.
More on health
New Drugs to Treat Dementia Symptoms?
Research brings new hope to patientsDrugmaker Will Ask FDA to Approve First Alzheimer's Treatment
Biogen says its medication may slow cognitive decline in some patients with early dementia