Babs Zielazinski is a dynamic octogenarian who's taken to the keyboard in the last few months.
"I can do the fingering with the right hand and I can fiddle a little bit with the chords and, but it sounds pretty good to me," says Zielazinski.
Babs' enthusiasm is part of a plan to keep her mind active for the long term.
"So maybe if I get to the age of a hundred, I'll still know what I'm doing," says Zielazinski.
She's also joined a Rush University Medical Center study to see if an antioxidant supplement can prevent Alzheimer's Disease.
"What we're trying to do is to test to see if the Cerefolin NAC, which is a combination of high dose B vitamins and an antioxidant, will help to replace some of the antioxidant capabilities that the body is losing," says Geriatrician Dr. Raj Shah.
As we age, antioxidant production drops and may allow damaging proteins to build-up in the brain.
"The oxidative stress causes problems with causing the nerve cells not to function as well, and to die sooner, and that brings out the symptoms," says Shah.
Participants take a multi-vitamin plus another pill, which may be the antioxidant booster Cerefolin Nac.
"It'll be interesting to see if the combination of those two agents together seem to bring a little bit more benefit than just the B vitamins by themselves," says Shah.
Whether the supplement actually helps is still up in the air.
"We just have to understand what these nutraceuticals are doing and whether they're helpful or not," says Shah.
Results that will help Babs decide whether her memories can be preserved by a pill.
If results are promising, doctor's will pursue a larger study.









