Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues in facting you this week.
Here's many Munios.
And welcome to another edition of Iheartradios Communities. As you heard, I am Manny Muno's it's not an exaggeration to say our nation has a gun violence epidemic, especially among our nation's youth. Well, June happens to be National Gun Violence Awareness Month, so we're lucky enough to be able to discuss it now with doctor Cassandra Krafossi, co director of the Center for Gun Violent Solutions at John Hopkins University. Doctor Crafossi, I appreciate the.
Time, thanks for having me.
I'm looking at through.
Some numbers here, and guns are the leading cause of death among youth one ages one through seventeen in our country, and an average of seven young people a day are shot in the United States.
How have we gotten to this point?
It's a really great point. We have gotten to this point in the US by having guns that are far too accessible. We see guns as a leading cause of death for kids and teens more than cars or cancer, which is quite stark to sort of hear it put that way, there are things that we can do though, as gun owners, as people who choose to have guns in the home, A really important way to reduce this burden among kids and teens is say fun storage.
Yeah, and that's always one of the big dilemmas for gun owners such as myself, is you want to make sure that the gun is the weapon is accessible in case you ever need to use it, but you also need to make sure it is safely secured.
How do we manage both of those things.
It's a really great consideration. I personally am a gun owner. I'm an active sports shooter, so it's important to me that we are promoting practices that acknowledge and respect people's right to own firearms but can also make us all safer. The best practice when we're thinking about storing firearms is to store them unloaded and locked up, preferably separate from ammunition.
But I also recognize that people own firearms for lots of reasons, including home defense, and that means that we may want our firearms a little bit more easily accessible, and there I would encourage people to consider a quick access safe, a safe that can be bolted to the bedside, or a closet floor that can be quickly accessed via a key code or biometrics that can allow you to use your gun should you need it.
Yeah, and that's one of the most reasonable things I think many of us have turned to. I think one of the most worrisome problems with this issue of the gun violence epidemic is that it doesn't seem to be leveling off. It has I think, doubled in the last decade.
Is it not?
It has doubled in the last decade. We are seeing some promising trends when it comes to interpersonal violence. Gun homicide is trending down slightly, though we are still much higher than we were prior to the pandemic. Alarmingly, firearm suicides continue to increase. In fact, the last year that we have complete data, we saw the highest number and highest rate of firearm suicides in the US ever recorded.
So we're going certainly in the wrong direction there, which makes it much more important that we're thinking about how we can minimize the harms of firearms if they're easily accessible again, making sure guns are stored, unloaded and locked up, every gun every time, acknowledging that we may use them for home defense and want these quick access states, but certainly thinking about how can we minimize the risks and what are the responsibilities that come along with choosing to
exercise our rights to own firearms.
Part of your job is research. How does public health research help us understand what some of the root causes for the gun violence epidemic that we've seen in our country.
Sure, from a public health perspective, we're really thinking about what are the various points of intervention and how can we try to minimize the harms from whatever the exposure might be. And here we're thinking about strategies like child access prevention laws making sure that people who own firearms are actively storing them in a way that make sure kids and teens who can't legally buy guns aren't able
to gain access to them. We actually see in states with these laws a fourteen percent reduction in child and adolescent suicide. So a really important way to make our
community safer is by having these safe storage laws. And we're also thinking about how are we regulating the sale of firearms to make sure that they're only getting into the hands of people who can legally buy them, making sure we have these strong background check laws to identify and screen out people who shouldn't be able to have them. But then it also comes back to these behaviors that
we can engage in. Sets of guns from homes is one of the leading sources of guns into an underground gun market that might be used to harm kids or other community members, and so safe storage is really important, not just in the home, but to make our community safer,
and tied to that, storing guns safely in cars. As we have more people carrying firearms out in public, it's important that when we have them in our cars, we're also storing them safely so the guns can't be stolen and used to harm our communities.
Sadly, we can't mandate responsibility in our country. How do you get the message to what seems like we have way too many of in our country irresponsible adults when it comes to their firearms.
It's a really great point you raise. We try to think about this from a couple of ways. One, as we're doing here talking about what we do as responsible gun owners, the steps we take to make sure our guns aren't being accessed by people who shouldn't have them, but there's an important role for people who also don't own firearms, and that's again starting to help normalize the conversation. So if I send my kids to a friend's house to play, asking those parents do you have guns in
the home and are they safely stored? And if I'm not comfortable with that answer, inviting people to my house instead, or meeting at a public location like a park. Really thinking about how can we make this a normal part
of any safety conversation. If your kid had a food allergy, you wouldn't be shy about asking the friend's parents to not feed your kid peanuts, for example, And so how else can we have this come in talking about seat belts, talking about bike helmets, Really making this a part of everyday conversation because it doesn't have to be awkward. I have these conversations all the time, and most people are receptive of engaging in this way.
Yeah, and it's fascinating that you put it that way. My wife has a saying, you don't get a do over with your kids, so you got to get it right the first time. And with guns being so prevalent in our society, it's a little bit surprising people are more hesitant, almost as if it were a taboo topic to talk to other parents.
About I agree. It really has been almost made to feel that way, I think because it has become a really political topic. But in my experience as a researcher and as a gun owner, it doesn't have to be. In fact, when you have these kinds of conversations, people are very receptive. And one of the reasons we're so focused on kids and teens is because anyone who has kids or has been around kids know that one of the greatest characteristics of kids is they are so curious.
They love to explore, they love to check things out. They know where the cookies and snacks are hidden. They usually know where the Christmas presents are hidden as well, which means they're probably also able to find where you
may have put up your firearm. And we don't want kids finding firearms that are unsecured and hopefully, you know, having a bad outcome from that, avoiding a bad outcome from that, and so we want to make sure that we're minimizing that risk by having our gun stored, unloaded, locked up every time.
A few more minutes here with doctor Cassandra Canfossi, co director of the Center for Gun Violent Solutions at John Hopkins University. Back to the point we were talking about a few minutes ago about getting the message through to irresponsible gun owners. Unfortunately, it is a fact that we have too many of them. We've seen in some of the recent mass shootings where it was a parent who allowed a medica mentally troubled teenager or even adult to have access to their firearms.
It's a really unfortunate circuit situation when someone who can legally buy a firearm is getting it into the hands of someone who shouldn't have it, either because they are of a young age or they have some kind of
crisis or other sort of mental health condition. So it's really important again that we are emphasizing the responsibilities that come along with the rights of firearm ownership, and that means making sure that we're doing the right things, storing our guns safe and secure every time, making sure we're not selling our firearms to people who can't legally have them, and normalizing some of these conversations. Often we devolve a conversation into the ski very phrase of gun control, what
does that mean? But when you get really specific, you actually see really broad support. So, for example, we do a public opinion poll every two years. It's a nationally representative sample of US adults, and we ask them things like, should someone who's buying a gun for the first time
be required to take a safety course? And it turns out that's a really good idea of eighty four percent of US adults, including eighty percent of gun owners, think if you've never had a gun before, you should probably take a safety course. And really leaning into these areas of agreement, because when we get specific and we start talking about what do we actually mean when we're talking about safety, that's when we can have the most productive conversations.
What do you think of the most common misconceptions about gun violence that you encounter in your work.
I think there are two really pervasive misconceptions when it comes to gun violence. One is that interpersonal violence or homicide is the leading cause of death, when in fact, firearm suicide is the leading cause of gun deaths. More than half of all gun deaths in the US are from suicide. And the other piece, which is related, is that mass shootings or school shootings are the predominant form of gun deaths that we need to be thinking about.
When it comes to school shootings, they are exceptionally rare. They are terrible and tragic, and we should be focused on preventing them. But schools continue to be one of the safest places for our children, and so it's important to be having these kinds of conversations to recognize one firem suicide is the leading cause of death, and two there are things that we can do to prevent multiple forms of gun.
Violence along those lines. What role does mental health play in the broader conversation about gun violence prevention.
It's a really great question. So when we think about gun violence overall, mental health or mental illness actually plays a very small role. If we were to prevent all interpersonal violence, so homicide and non fatal shooting that you could attribute to people who have a mental illness, you would prevent less than ten percent of all gun violence
in the US. There is a much stronger correlation with mental health and risk of suicide, and that's where things like LEFO means safety counseling, having firearms temporarily removed from the home if it's a very severe incident, potentially separating someone from their firearms through a court order where a judge determines whether someone temporarily needs to have their firearms separated. It isn't a really important point that drives the narrative.
But when we're thinking about preventing gun violence, whether it's homicide or suicide, there are other facts like alcohol consumption, history of prior violence, access to firearms during those times of crisis that are far more important drivers.
How can families, individuals participate in what I mentioned June being Gun Violence Awareness Months? Are there activities? Are there ways that you try to get the message out to the public.
Absolutely so. In recognition of June being Gun Violence Awareness Months, our website, we have a new landing page that's totally dedicated to understanding safe storage. So we've got a great website there. You can learn about how guns should be
stored right. We want them to be unloaded and locked up for non gun owners, making sure that you're talking with folks that you may know, other parents, etc. But we've got some great toolkits, We've got some guidance language for folks who may not know exactly how to initiate some of these and really help us normalize these conversations because there's no rewind button on a firearm, and unfortunately, if guns fall into the hands of kids, and teens,
they may be used to harm themselves or others, and we can't take that back.
What is the website public health.
Dot jhu dot edu slash gun violence.
Excellent? Repeat that for me.
Yes, our website is public Health dot jhu dot edu slash gun violence.
And the last thing for you, doctor Crafaci, how do you attempt to engage with gun owners in your research and your outreach efforts? Because you mentioned a couple of minutes ago, I thought something that is absolutely true. Anytime we talk about gun violence gun owners, many gun owners minds immediately turns to gun control, and that's not what you're talking about here.
As a gun owner myself, it's important to me that we are part of the solution, and that's the framing that I bring when I'm doing my research, translation, activities, whatever it might be. And so I make a concerted effort to talk with gun owners what are the things they're doing, what are the things they would like to
learn about or to hear people talk about. Because we have more guns than people in the US, and we have lots of people who own firearms, it's an important part of my identity, other people's identity, and so it's important that we are engaging and having these conversations. I hope this opportunity to share with folks today a public health researcher who's a gun owner, who is working to reduce gun violence can sort of help change that narrative.
Let's hope I speak with you a year from now and we've got positive trends downward trends to report in terms of gun violence overall, especially among our nation's youth. Doctor Cassandra Krefossi, Co director of the Center for Gun Violent Solutions at John Hopkins University, thanks so much.
Be well, appreciate the time.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
It seems like every day we hear about breakthroughs and the diagnosis and treatment.
Of all sorts of diseases. Some of the.
Greatest strides are being made in Alzheimer's disease. But those breakthroughs don't happen without research. So let's take a look at one of those projects right now. As where you bring in Doctor Doris Molina Henry, Assistant Professor at the USC CLEX School of Medicine, Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute. Doctor Malina Henry, I appreciate the time.
Thank you so much, Manny, It's a pleasure to be here.
So let me start off with this. What is Alzheimer's disease.
So, when we think of Alzheimer's disease, it's a type of dementia or a change in the brain that significantly impairs or affects the individual's ability to function as they normally would have functioned. It begins to impacting things like your memory, your cognitive function, your ability to think and
process through things and events. Actually, a disease like Alzheimer's disease, as it progresses, begins to affect your everyday life, your ability to function in everyday space, your ability to move, communicate and engage with others. And it can take an incredibly debilitating role on the individual and ultimately on those
that surround them. And so when we think of Alzheimer's, we think of a subclass of the dementias that is typically thought as one of the most prevalent or most commonly occurring.
So all dementias are not Alzheimer's disease, but all Alzheimer's disease are a form of dementia.
That is exactly right, and what exactly.
Is dementia, then specifically.
It's a collection of symptoms that really are rooted in changes in the brain. Typically, we would have thought, maybe decades ago, that changes in the brain, your ability to remember, your ability to function with age, should be changing dramatically, and that these were things that when we saw them, this collection of symptoms, when we saw them and saw them happen in our loved ones, that this was just a normal part of aging. And research has taught us
that that's not the case. That as we've learned more, we understand that our brains don't have to be completely impaired by the time that we reach our seventies and eighties, that we can have very strong function a very strong functioning brain. And so when we think about dementias, we think about that collection of symptoms. Memory loss, changes in thinking, changes in functioning, changes in your mood, changes in your
ability to connect, remembering individuals, remembering lists, remembering appointments. All of those things are the early signs. And then even more progressive science begin with aggression in some individuals, or just ability the ability to communicate as well is lost in a number of other things, ultimately getting to a place where the individual can barely do their activities as daily living.
Do we go from the point where me, for example, getting older, walks into another room forget why I was walking in there, or forgetting where I put my phone or my keys, and the point where it begins to become dementia.
Yes, that's an excellent question. So what we've learned is that this is happening well before we begin to detect these changes. Individuals that will have Alzheimer's disease typically show a protein in their brain called the amyloid, and that protein can begin to accumulate along with other pathological changes even ten twenty years prior to an individual beginning to show the early signs of dementia or Alzheimer's disease, and
typically we associate these proteins with Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, do we know.
What causes these proteins to increase in the brain.
We don't know. Specifically. There could be a myriad of factors. What we do is that there are certain genetic risk factors. Some individuals may show up with a particular gene that has a component that makes them more at risk. Some individuals, when they have that may not progress into dimension and others that accumulate amyloid may not even develop dementia. So
we are still learning. There's much to be learned. But what we have understood is that when we begin to see these individuals that present with this apoe for allio that carry it, they tend to be at higher risk
of presenting with the disease. But we also understand that there are other factors that may contribute to accelerating and those may be really associated to modifiable factors such as diabetes or uncontrolled glucose levels, uncontrolled blood pressure, and these things seem to contribute to possibly the progression of Alzheimer's disease and individuals that are at risk.
To get into your specific research, what you're looking into, and then end of the study, which is really really unique. In a second here, it seems I mentioned breakthroughs.
At the beginning.
It seems like some of the greatest breakthroughs it right now is not necessarily the treatment of Alzheimer's, but in the diagnosis and the early detection.
Can can you talk to me about some of those.
I would say it's both. I think we're seeing incredible breakthroughs in the treatment of a disease. That for decades we have tried to treat and had barely stretched the surface, and all of a sudden, now we have two therapies that are available that are disease modifying, me that they can delay that the accumulation or even eliminate some of
that accumulation of amyloid in individual's brains. We also have the incredible resource now and tool of the blood tests which were not in existence, and the fact that we can now measure in someone's blood and we have approved tests that will contribute to the timely diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease really is a game changer because this all means that it will allow individuals to know sooner where we have much more, much stronger potential for effect as intervention.
Are there already guidelines for how, when, on whom these blood tests for early detection can be used.
Yes, there are guidelines in place and these are being communicated more in the clinical space. They have come from a number of institutes and organizations. The Alzheimer's Association has heavily involved the FDA, So there are guidances right now for therapies. We know that these are only a pruce
for individuals with mild cognitive impairment. And I mentioned that specifically because we hope that, based on the evidence that we are seeing that even individuals that are the very very early stage of mild cognitive impairment, which is almost a prelude in some cases to dementia, these individual rules may benefit even more from the therapies that are currently available.
How far have you had to guess? Would you say we are from a cure?
Well, I think we are getting closer. It's very hard to say how far we are from a cure. I think what we're closer to is prevention and prevention strategy, and the fact that we can detect these proteins well before someone begins to experience symptoms may certainly be considered a form of cure because they may never experience the devastating and debilitating effects of Alzheimer's disease if we get this right.
And that's the perfect segue.
Here a few more minutes here with doctor Doris Molina Henry, assistant professor at the USC Keech School of Medicine, Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute.
So talk to me about this apt WEB study.
Absolutely, and so when we think of all of what we've just discussed and the important developments that are happening. We have a program known as the APE Web Study, which is a free, easy to access online study designed to help researchers really understand how memory and thinking is
changing over time. It helps us also provide opportunities for individuals who may be progressing or may show signs that they could be qualified to participate in one of these studies that is interventional where we are testing these treatments to see if they can effectively reduce the progression of amyloid, reduce the progression of some of these pathological factors that contribute to symptoms in the long run, and so this becomes the sort of a matching mechanism, but it also
allows individuals to follow and track their own memory over time, whether they have concerns or not.
Prevention is the word that jumped out at me initially when you mentioned it. Exactly who are you looking for in terms of participants for the web study.
We are typically looking for anyone at age and fifty or older and who has access to internet and can sign up, whether they have memory concerns or not. And so these are individual individuals are welcome to just go to the website at theww dot APT web Study dot org and there there are very clear instructions on how someone may sign up, but also has it gives you an opportunity to view the information and understand what type of study this is, and the ask is very minimal.
What participants are asked to do is simply complete a cognitive assessment, a test that allows us to evaluate their cognitive function, their their brain function at the time they're taking it, and that is repeated every six months. And then they complete also a questionnaire that allows us to gauge how they're perceiving their memory at this time and any changes that they are experiencing, and that happens every
three months. So with those two pieces of information, we continually monitor and can provide that information back to participants in individuals in the community.
Aptwebstudy dot org. Apt Webstudy dot Org is the website. In terms of who Alzheimer's effects, is there a cultural component? Have you found some sort of a socioeconomic component, because I know you study both the biological and non biological contributors to this disease.
Yeah, that's an excellent question. So we have known based on prior evidence that there is a higher risk of dementia in certain communities, in certain groups associated with social factors. Social demographic factors, particularly individuals that may be from black communities or from Hispanic communities, These tend to be much
more present with a higher risk of dementia. So we always hope to engage these individuals because they're not traditionally as present in our studies, but the doors are open and the opportunities abound, and so we really hope that individuals that are finding themselves at the higher risk of the spectrum may be I'm willing to engage and participate.
We are starting to see relationships and other factors as well, and I think that these have been described in the literature, but we're starting to look at this also with blood tests and looking at the biomarkers and looking at how some of these social factors can affect the biology that ultimately may contribute to increased risk and some individuals.
What is the benefit I guess for the participants to take part in this study, In other words, are you offering anything for these people participating?
Yes? So, I think the greatest benefit of this is the ability to be proactive about your own thing this web study of participates is now a part of this web study community that receives information about their own brain, health, your results or return to you, but also the ability and the opportunity to engage further in research via participation in blood assessments or participation in an interventional clinical trial, receiving information about how things are changing in the field
and how you can best get involved. And I think that that, especially as our population AGUS becomes much more important, it gives them an opportunity to really be engaged when there's time, to be able to make the adaptations and changes that might provide them with a longer, healthier a brain for a longer health longer time.
What makes this web study so unique because it seems like you're able because of the way you're conducting it. You're able to not only get a lot more people to participate, but do it in ways that I guess other research hasn't looked at yet.
It is our hope, and I think that there are many other spaces where these things are being tried. But one thing that I believe is unique about the app web study is that it provides this information to participants but also opens the door and the ability to match for an interventional trial if this is something that the individual is pre qualified for, and that I mean, we're
noticing changes in your brain. Now here's an opportunity get in on the most breakthrough, latest potential interventions that might change the course of the disease in the future.
Well, I'm over fifty.
I'm going to go to APT webstudy dot org and register for it myself. APT webstudy dot org. Doctor Doris Malina Henry, I hope to follow up with you a few months down the line, see what you've learned.
I appreciate the time.
Thank you.
It's doctor Doris Malina Henry, assistant professor at the USC Tech School of Medicine, Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute. Again, if you're interested in joining the study, finding out more, or for one of your loved ones, APT webstudy dot org. And that'll do it for another edition of Iheartradios Communities. I'm Mannie Muno's until next time.