In elementary school, Alon Kashanian loved playing a Persian card game, pasur, with his grandmother for hours on end.
But over time, his grandmother began to forget how to play the game. She soon needed a full-time caretaker to help with daily activities, such as eating and walking. At times, he could tell she had forgotten who he was.
He later learned his grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior that affects about 5.4 million people.
At that time, Kashanian said he didn’t understand the disease well.
“A lot of the suffering is very emotional because many people don’t understand brain diseases that well,” said Kashanian, now a fourth-year neuroscience student.
To combat the misconceptions about neurodegenerative diseases, Kashanian and four other students founded their own student group, RENOUS, in fall 2012.
RENOUS, which stands for “Research and Education: Neurodegeneration – Offering Understanding and Solutions,” is a club that seeks to provide emotional as well as educational support for those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, and their loved ones, Kashanian said.
The club is hosting its first Alzheimer’s Awareness Night on Tuesday, an event that aims to educate students about Alzheimer’s through student performances in poetry, music, dance and art.
The event will also include a keynote speech by Joshua Grill, an assistant professor of neurology and faculty mentor for RENOUS, and a panel of doctors and researchers to answer questions about the disease.
Throughout the year, RENOUS encourages subjects to enroll in clinical research relating to Alzheimer’s, educate people about facts on the disease and foster an educational and research-oriented environment in the group, said Winston Chang, a fourth-year biology student and one of the founders of the group.
Club members give educational speeches on Alzheimer’s, traveling to places such as adult day healthcare centers, schools, churches and health fairs. Through their educational speeches, the club has reached more than 500 people in the Los Angeles area. Speakers also recommend neurodegenerative mental health resources for attendees.
Julia Tong, a fourth-year physiological science student, said she thinks it is important to teach people about Alzheimer’s because many patients don’t get the care or the education that they need.
Navneet Ramesh, a third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, said he thinks being a member of RENOUS has helped him better understand the nature of his grandfather’s undiagnosed neurodegenerative condition.
In elementary and middle school, Ramesh would travel to India during the summer and see his lively grandfather. But his grandfather’s neurodegenerative condition worsened and he became slower at answering questions and didn’t remember events as vividly as he once did, Ramesh said.
“I think that really hit home the most. (The disease) was not only affecting him, but how we interacted with him as well,” Ramesh said.
Tuesday’s event will benefit Tunes for Alzheimer’s Patients, a program that provides music devices to Alzheimer’s patients with their favorite music, started by the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at UCLA. Event attendees can donate iPods, MP3 players or iTunes gift cards.
Grill said music may help with some of the typical symptoms that come late in the disease, such as apathy, agitation, frustration and aggression.
Ramesh said he hopes the event will also increase the visibility of RENOUS as a club.
“We want to get our message across,” Ramesh said. “We want to put RENOUS on the map, saying we’re trying to do something about this problem.”
The event is being held in Carnesale Commons from 7-9 p.m. Attendees must RSVP online at RENOUS’ website.