At the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, North Carolina, they are shaking their fists at Alzheimer's disease doing their best to keep it at  bay.  Everyday, someone here is exercising their heart and mind the key to preventing Alzheimer's.  Church members, some of them in their 80's  are learning spanish.  72-year-old Fredrick Hill learned how to ride a horse. 

    "Every chance i get, i come out here"

    His blood pressure is down, his outlook is up and he believes his memory is better.  Frederick Hill said, "it does help. it keeps the mind working." The church is well aware that its flock is aging these are members who've died from the disease in the just the past few years. 

    'I know that i have the gene. i can't change the gene. so i work twice as hard in other areas to combat it," said Reverend James Brown. The good reverend who put this program together lost his mother to Alzheimer's. Rev. James E. Brown says that before she died, she would water plastic flowers, and put the mail in the fridge. 

"Every time  i look at my children, I know that we've got to find a cure before they're affected. I'm doing it for me, but I'm also doing it for those coming after me," Brown said.

The project at First Baptist Church actually began at Duke University.  Researchers, trying to beat the disease, have been working closely with the church. They even send doctos that test for memory, and the results suggest the church's efforts are working.  The real proof will come in five years, when they'll know for sure whether they've put Alzheimer's disease on hold. But the researchers still believe the program is already so successful, it should be repeated in churches across the country.