It happened this show, trying to recall a famous name from the 1990s and going through the steps with your mind to get there.

Is it Alzheimer’s? No, and Dr. Kimberly Mueller, an associate professor at UW-Madison and researcher at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, was there firsthand to explain it.

Mueller joined the show ahead of her visit to town to give us a look at the current state of dementia and Alzheimer’s research. We dive into the “blood test revolution” making early detection easier, the local impact of the WRAP study at Mayo in La Crosse, and the lifestyle changes that actually work for prevention — all while getting a glimpse into how an expert in the field spends a typical day.

We began the conversation by discussing why these “tip of the tongue” moments — like trying to recall the Mark McGwire using creatine to hit homers scandal — are actually a standard part of typical aging that many of us notice as early as our 40s.

Mueller explains that even experts in the field experience these lapses, but she clarifies the specific “red flag” for when word-finding transitions from a normal annoyance to a medical concern. That McGwire connection led to a deeper look at the diagnostic side of the field, where simple blood tests are now replacing invasive brain scans to detect changes earlier than ever before.

Much of this data comes from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP) — one of the largest studies of its kind — which operates a research site right here at Mayo Clinic in La Crosse.

From there, the discussion shifted to the prevention side of the research, exploring why heart health and exercise are proving more effective than “brain games.” Mueller explains that while staying active might not stop the biological proteins of Alzheimer’s from forming, keeping your cardiovascular system in check is a major reason dementia prevalence is actually starting to trend downward.

Lastly, we asked Mueller what a professor who researches, studies, and teaches about dementia does in a typical day. Mueller explains her expertise in studying the brain by listening to the way we speak. She breaks down how her team uses digital recordings to analyze “acoustic measures” — the subtle timing, pauses, and sounds within our speech — to identify microscopic red flags that the human ear simply cannot hear.

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