By Nick Wagoner
Staff Writer

Nobody knows the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease better than Rams coach Mike Martz. Martz’s mother Betty suffered from the disease for about seven years before she died of lung cancer.

That’s why he and his wife Julie have made it a priority to help find a cure as soon as possible. In an effort to speed up that goal, Martz has raised large sums of money to help research and care for Alzheimer’s.

Teaming up with Washington University, Martz spoke Monday at the dedication ceremony for the Betty Martz Center for Neurodegenerative Research. With the reconstruction of the laboratory comes an added focus on research of Alzheimer’s, Martz hopes a cure can be found.

“They are getting close,” Martz said. “They have identified the gene. Depending on who you talk to they are five, six, 10 years away from coming up with a cure for it. Hopefully within the next 10 years we will have a cure for Alzheimer’s and that is why we have got to keep pushing it and not let it out of the public eye.”

The Betty Martz Center will serve as the epicenter for all Alzheimer’s research in St. Louis and one of the premiere clinics in the nation. Scientists working in the neurodegenerative field will have the opportunity to advance their research through technology and resources of the highest quality. Those tools will aid in the research efforts of all neuropathology, particularly Alzheimer’s.

Most of the money raised for the laboratory comes from Martz’s annual golf tournament, which provides funds for Alzheimer’s research and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. John C. Morris, MD, the Director and Principal Investigator of the Alzheimer’s Research Center, said Martz’s commitment to finding a cure makes him a valuable cog in getting the word out.

“I think his involvement is one, a very passionate one,” Dr. Morris said. “I think he very much wants to fight this disease that took his mother. Two, his celebrity is very powerful. I think that that’s, in terms of getting the word out and saying it in such an articulate and passionate way, is very helpful to increase awareness.”

The progress that has already been made is quite profound. If the revamped laboratory can speed up the process, it is possible a cure for Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases can be found.

In fact, Morris is confident that the adjustments made for the newly renovated Betty Martz Clinic will lead to a cure sooner than later. With all of the changes to the building, Washington University’s Alzheimer’s research will now take a backseat to nobody in the country.

“The research dollars that he has raised have gone to renovating a laboratory where research into Alzheimer’s disease is done from a very substandard laboratory to one that now is state of the art,” Dr. Morris said.

Martz’s commitment to the cause extends far beyond simply raising money, though that part is important. In April of 2003, Martz appeared before a United States Senate committee in an effort to gain federal funding for Alzheimer’s research. In June of 2004, Martz was a featured speaker at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute Black-Tie Gala hosted by U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller (D- W.Va.), whose mother also had Alzheimer’s.

Of course, Martz’s commitment in the community extends beyond Alzheimer’s research. He hosts a coaching clinic for hundreds of high school coaches each year and co-hosts the annual St. Louis Rams Super Blood Drive. He even earned the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame’s Most Pro-active Coach award in 2003.

The tireless efforts of Martz and his wife stem from the seven years of watching his mother whither at the hands of the disease.

“I think anybody who has experienced it knows how it can impact not just the loved one next to them, but the entire family,” Martz said. “The drain emotionally and financially is just dramatic. There is always one person that ends up in full care of that individual.”

In Martz’s case, it was his brother Fritz who was that person. Martz estimates that his brother answered about 27 calls per day from his mother and the stress got so bad for him that he had a heart attack.

As Martz watched his mother slowly decline into what he calls an infantile state, the damaging effects of Alzheimer’s came into focus. Some people might think that Alzheimer’s is simple memory loss, but the fact is, there is much more to it than that.

“Saying that people just become forgetful that’s insulting,” Martz said. “Until you witness it and, really right now, you could talk to anybody off the street and they either have a parent, aunt or uncle, brother or sister (with it)…somehow people have a better knowledge of this. It’s not where it was 10 or 15 years ago. Memory loss is the overall deScription of it, but along with it goes your dignity. Plus there is a real emotional change. They become very aggressive, very difficult to deal with, paranoid. There are all kinds of emotional and psychological changes that happen as well. It’s not just forgetting. There are phases that you go through with Alzheimer’s. It’s complicated and it’s something that can be cured so let’s get to it.”

The money raised doesn’t just go to research, though. While Martz had the financial ability to help his mother, other families aren’t so fortunate. There is great cost that goes along with any devastating disease. To that end, the funds raised also are contributed toward helping alleviate costs for medical care of people with the disease.

Martz’s golf clinic went on hiatus this year because of his offseason back surgery, but he said he expects it to return next year. Ultimately, Martz hopes to find a cure before it is too late. Because of the nature of the disease, Martz is worried that an entire generation is headed toward a dangerous road.

“The tragedy of this is, with all of the baby boomers that are approaching that area now where Alzheimer’s is an issue for everybody, more and more people are being exposed to it,” Martz said. “It’s about to be a national tragedy. It’s very important that we find a cure soon.”

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Martz, his wife and the people at Washington University, that should happen sooner than later.