Julianne Moore discusses brain health, Alzheimer’s awareness

Welcome back to Good Day Chicago. November is Alzheimer's, I should say, Awareness Month, an important reminder to think about brain health and the steps we can take to prioritize it as we all age. Academy Award-winning actress Julianne Moore gained a deep understanding of the impact of Alzheimer's disease while preparing for her role in Still Alice. And what she learned inspired her to take care of her brain and partner with Lilly on the Brain Health Matters campaign. She joins us today from New York. Good morning. Hi. Good morning. How are you? We are great. We're so honored to have you. You know, it wasn't that recent that you worked on this movie, but it inspired you and moved you so much to continue working on this campaign. Tell us why you continue moving forward with the Alzheimer's Association. Yes, this is my second year partnering with Lilly on the Brain Health Matters campaign, and we are continuing to encourage people To speak to their doctors about their brain health, to ask for their risk factors and a cognitive assessment. But the new thing now is that if you're experiencing memory or thinking issues, there's a blood test that you can ask for. It's called P-tau 217, and it could indicate Alzheimer's pathology. So that's a big deal. Julianne I want to go back to this film and what was it because you've had other roles before right and that doesn't mean every single time you pick up a different cause what was it about this movie that made you say I gotta pick up this cause and I gotta pick it up right now. I think it's interesting. You know, I feel like people go to movies and they see themselves in it and they see things about their own life or the questions that they have. And so many people approached me afterwards to say that they had lost a loved one to Alzheimer's or they had questions about Alzheimer's or that there's a misnomer that it is a condition of aging when in fact it is a disease. There was a lack of information around it. And the people that I had met when I was doing my research were so incredibly generous with their information. And with their time and were so eager to share what they had learned with me that you realize that there's a hunger for this kind of information. Our cognitive health is so important and there's a tremendous amount of stigma around it. So I think particularly as we have made so many advances with so many other diseases, it's become evident that this is one that needs more time and discussion around it. What have you learned over the years that has surprised you about it? And maybe when talking to other people that they were unaware of. Well, there's so many lifestyle factors that we can control. I think nutrition certainly and exercise and socialization, that's so important for brain health learning something new. The brain is a control center for the body. So physical health and brain health really go hand in hand. And just the fact that, as I said earlier, Alzheimer's is not a condition of aging, it is a disease. And with all diseases, we like to think about being proactive and preventative measures that we can take. I know you say it's a disease, but at some point there are signs, right, that people may have this disease. What do you say to someone if they have a loved one out there and they start noticing maybe changes in their patterns in the way that they think? Yeah, I think this is something that's really important. I think particularly around the holidays, we're seeing sometimes seeing relatives that we haven't seen in a while, so we might notice changes in behavior. I think letting them know that there is help. Thank you really need to address with a healthcare professional Tell us more about this blood test because I kind of want to empty your brain Tell us everything you know about it How how so much. Let's say a person is just experiencing mild symptoms, maybe no symptoms. Can it still diagnose that they're gonna have an issue down the road? What it does diagnose is the presence of amyloid in the brain, which was something that they couldn't diagnose previously without an autopsy. So now that there's this blood test, that's what you'll see. So at that point, your doctor has that information, which is information that was not previously available to most patients. Give our audience some tips on where they can go to learn more information. There's a wonderful website called brainhealthmatters.com. It's quite comprehensive, and it's something that everybody can take a look at and learn a lot from. You know, when we brought you up in the newsroom yesterday, and we said you were going to be appearing on our show, everyone was like, oh, we love her. She's so beautiful. I mean, resounding, unanimous. Thank you. That's so nice. Tell us what you're working on next, where people can see you. Oh, I have a movie coming out in December that I'm really, really proud of. It's called The Debut. It's written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who is an absolute genius, a wonderful person, you know, really once-in-a-lifetime talent, and I starred in it with Paul Giamatti, who I absolutely adore, is so funny and so wonderful, just a great partner. It's a very funny movie. It's a movie that everybody can see, I think your whole family will enjoy, and it's about a woman on a creative journey and how she finds her community, and I think you'll laugh a lot. I love that you, your roles and how you appear to be transcends in this interview the exact same way. And sometimes that doesn't happen for a lot of people. So thank you so much for spending time with us this morning. Thanks, guys. Thanks a lot. Nice to talk to you.