B. Smith – New Face of Brain Health Registry - Shares Story on TODAY Show

The Brain Health Registry, a groundbreaking, web-based project led by UCSF researchers designed to speed up cures for Alzheimer’sParkinson’s and other brain disorders, has a new face. 

Barbara Smith – known to the world as B. Smith – was recently featured on TODAY, alongside her husband Dan Gasby and TODAY anchor Al Roker, in a segment on her Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and her involvement with the Brain Health Registry. Smith, iconic model, restaurateur and host of TV show “B. Smith with Style” hopes that by speaking out publicly and airing her Brain Health Registry PSA she can encourage more people — especially minorities — to sign on to the registry and volunteer for clinical trials looking for a cure for the disease.

As Smith’s Alzheimer’s has progressed over the four years since her diagnosis, so have the problems caused by the disease. Now, her mission is to get more people, especially minorities, to join the fight against the debilitating brain disease, by helping with research and signing up for clinical trials. The Brain Health Registry is an easy – and even fun – way to get involved.

The Brain Health Registry is a neuroscience project made up of online questionnaires and online neuropsychological tests aimed at promoting healthy brain function through the prevention of brain diseases, brain disorders and brain injuries that affect brain function in adults.

All are welcome and encouraged to sign up for the Brain Health Registry. Once joined, participants give their demographic information and complete as many tests as they’d like to test their cognitive function. Volunteers are encouraged to return and retest every three to six months so the research team, led by founder and Principal Investigator Dr. Michael Weiner, can analyze brain function over time periods to understand and learn more about the human brain as it ages and changes.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, African-Americans are twice as likely as Whites to develop the disease, while Hispanics are one-and-a-half times as likely as Whites to develop it. However, minorities are less likely to get diagnosed. The hope is that more minorities take part in clinical trials and brain research, like the Brain Health Registry.

For more information on the Brain Health Registry, please visit the website at BrainHealthRegistry.org.

See more on TODAY Health.

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