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American Morning

Remembering Ronald Reagan; 'Paging Dr. Gupta'

Aired June 07, 2004 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Our special coverage continues live in Simi Valley, California. I'm Bill Hemmer, live here at the presidential library of the late president, the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan. There is a long list of things that go through today and continue over the next five days throughout the week here. The schedule was put out late yesterday. We'll tell you what we expect to happen today here at the library in a moment.

Also to Soledad O'Brien. Good morning, Soledad, on a Monday. How are you?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. Good morning to you as well. Thank you. I'm doing just fine.

Also this morning, we're talking to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, looking at that disease that took away so much from Ronald Reagan and his family in the last 10 years of his life. Well now, is there any new hope for treating Alzheimer's Disease? Sanjay's going to take a look at that this morning for us -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad. Thanks. It was a busy week here planned for the next five days, not only in California, but also in the nation's capital, and again then back here in California.

This is our understanding for how we expect the schedule to go. In about 4 1/2 hours from now, in a fact, at a funeral home in Santa Monica, about 45 minutes from our location here in Simi Valley, a procession will lead carrying the casket and the body of the late President Ronald Reagan. Once they arrive here, a private ceremony will take place with just the Reagan family, then after that time, for a period of about 30 hours, the public will be able to come here. They will be bussed in from a local college, and they will have a period of about 30 hours to view and pay their final respects to the late President Ronald Reagan, a closed casket setting. That will continue on Tuesday.

And then on Wednesday, Ronald Reagan's body will be flown to Andrews Air Force base in Washington D.C. There will be a funeral late on Wednesday night in the Capitol building on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

Then on Thursday, they are expecting huge numbers for the American people to come out; 100,000 expected to do pay their final respects in Washington D.C. Alone. Then on Friday morning, we move to the funeral at the national cathedral in Washington.

After that, the body of Ronald Reagan will be flown back here with his family to the presidential library. In the building behind, the library behind me, it's our understanding there is a presidential seal on the ground there under an oak tree, and that is where Ronald Reagan will find his final resting place in a knoll that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. That proceeding, again, on Friday evening, at sunset.

There is a second plot of land there, not only for Ronald Reagan, but also for his wife, Nancy Reagan, to be reserved at a later date.

That's the schedule as we have it now.

I want to bring in Richard Thornburgh now, former attorney general, came in at the end of the second term of Ronald Reagan, 1988 to be a bit more specific, and we welcome you here to AMERICAN MORNING.

Is it possible for you to relay to us what Ronald Reagan was thinking at the time he was closing out his second term?

RICHARD THORNBURGH, FMR. ATTY. GENERAL: My wife and I visited with President Reagan and Nancy Reagan in their home in California just after he'd left office, and I put the question to him as to what he was most proud of during his presidency, and he answered, without hesitation, the revitalization of our armed forced, the raising of morale, the providing of all the equipment necessary, and that was no surprise to us. He was a consummate patriot. We had a son who was in the submarine service at the time, and it made us feel a little bit more confident about his well-being and about our nation.

HEMMER: In 1988, when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mikhail Gorbachev was visiting the White House at that time. You were there that day. How did he respond? And how did you view him in terms of his leadership when he got the word and the news of that?

THORNBURGH: Well, he was like all of us, stunned and shocked at this very first terrorist attack directed against American citizens, and we had to mobilize all of the law enforcement resources we had, not only in the United States, but obviously worldwide, and I was on a constant round of conversations and discussions with my counterparts in law enforcement around the world to try to develop the evidence in the case that would identify the perpetrators. It took a long time, and it only last year that Moammar Gadhafi of Libya finally acknowledged that it was Libyan agents who had caused that dreadful event, but he was bound and determined to see that that crime didn't go unpunished.

HEMMER: We have heard so many stories over the past day, and we will continue, no doubt, throughout the entire week to get more stories about the life of Ronald Reagan, how he led and how he acted as a president, and also as a man. It's been said that if you wanted to get Ronald Reagan's attention, don't give him numbers, tell him a story. How would you get his attention in a cabinet meeting? THORNBURGH: Well, telling a story to the consummate storyteller of all time was quite a challenge indeed. It's quite true, he was not a policy wonk. He wasn't interested in flip charts, and detailed graphs and charts that outlined your best wishes, but you really knew enough as a cabinet member, a member of his team, to make sure that your message and your desires were communicated in terms of his priorities, because his management style was unique. He would try to recruit the best people he could, and make sure that they were aware of his overarching priorities, but the details and the day-to-day execution were left to his team. He was not a micromanager. So to get his attention, you had to speak to those priorities, and fortunately, I think most of us were wise enough to know to do that.

HEMMER: All right, Richard Thornburgh, thanks for being with us today. I think Nancy Reagan once said, he could tell stories all day long and do it without even repeating himself one time, so, clearly a bank of knowledge and experience as well. Thank you, Richard Thornburgh in D.C. -- Soledad.

THORNBURGH: Thank you, Bill.

O'BRIEN: Well, former President Reagan graduated from Eureka College in Illinois in 1932. Since his death was announced, people have been paying respects at the school's Reagan museum there, and Jonathan Freed is there for us this morning as well.

Jonathan, good morning.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

We're here in the museum where they have more than 3000 items of Reagan memorabilia, about a thousand of them on display at any one time. And the only place with more on display, with more available, is the Reagan Library in California.

Now, come on over here. I want to introduce you to Brian Cycle (ph), who is the curator of the museum.

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN CYCLE (ph): Good morning, Jonathan.

FREED: Now this is a very special case. Could you please open it now for America) sure thing.

CYCLE: Sure thing.

FREED: Now what do we have in here as the centerpiece?

CYCLE: Well, Reagan's college diploma. He had a combined degree in economics and sociology from the college in 1932.

FREED: Now you have a number of items on display here in this collection, many of which reveal something about the man's character that you might not have known otherwise, and I think this letter is one of them, right? CYCLE: Yes, this is a great example. It's a letter to our former college president, Ira Langtson (ph), which Reagan states when he's traveling for GE that he doesn't like to fly.

FREED: That he was afraid to fly?

CYCLE: That's right.

FREED: And you actually can see here in his own handwriting. He says here, "I am one of those prehistoric people who" -- and he underlines it -- "won't fly." Very interesting.

Now there is something else. It's actually, as it turns out, the most valuable piece, right?

CYCLE: That's right. It surprises a lot of people.

FREED: Yes, it surprised me when you told me that this was appraised as the most valuable one.

Let's keep them in suspense. OK, now let's show them what it is.

CYCLE: That's right. It's a pair of cowboy boots with the presidential seal, in which President Reagan told us he wore them, so they're all scuffed up on the bottom.

FREED: So he really did wear them?

CYCLE: That's right.

FREED: All right, Brian Cycle (ph), curator of the museum here at Eureka College. Pleasure. Thank you very much -- Soledad.

CYCLE: Thanks.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jonathan, thanks. Interesting stuff there. Appreciate it.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, Nancy Reagan called it the long goodbye, Alzheimer's Disease. So what's being done to treat this devastating disease?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta's going to pay us a visit just ahead.

And then, on a much lighter note, just how powerful is Harry Potter's spell on moviegoers? There were big numbers this week, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: It's been 10 years since Ronald Reagan was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. More than four million Americans are living with the disease, a number that was doubled in the past 20 years. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from the CNN Center to talk a little bit more about the illness that, in part, claimed the former president's life.

Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, it's one of the most feared, and one of the most common consequences of growing old. People know about Alzheimer's Disease. The numbers are pretty startling. After the age 65, the number of people with Alzheimer's Disease actually doubled every 5 year. By the time someone's 85 years old, about half of the people actually have Alzheimer's. So the numbers are pretty startling there.

There is no cure that people know of, and people really don't know the exact cause yet, but it's worth understanding what people believe the mechanism of Alzheimer's Disease is. We have an animation to try and show that.

But basically, you take a look at the brain. This is the brain, getting down to the very small level here of the neurons. And within that even, what happens sometimes is the little proteins actually get cleaved off, and that sort of travels through the brain and causes something known as plax (ph). That's a term that people think of often with Alzheimer's, also something known as tangles. What happens then is the neuron dies, because it can no longer can receive a signal, and that is what typically is the overlying of cause of Alzheimer's Disease.

Now there has been some research done to try to figure out what all the various mechanisms are. This is believed to be the most common.

Now people don't actually die of Alzheimer's disease. What they typically die is something like a pneumonia or something that is a consequence of growing old, not being able to care for yourself, also related to Alzheimer's -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, then, Sanjay, what kind of research looks promising for people who are now suffering with Alzheimer's Disease, and of course for the folks who may get it in the future?

GUPTA: Well, there are some medications out there, and this is what's shown the most promise recently. A couple of medications, I'll break them down for you, actually to be taken at the early stages of Alzheimer's. The first three there, Aricept, Exelon, Reminyl, certainly people whose family members have Alzheimer's know these medications. They actually work by actually trying to strengthen the neurotransmitters.

The last medication, Namenda, that one is one of the newer ones, Soledad, and the thing that's promising about this medication, is it can actually be given in somewhat later stages of Alzheimer's Disease. So someone's who's actually starting to show some symptoms. Again, the symptoms, you know, memory lapses, personality changes, those can be the early sort of symptoms, but eventually, globally, the entire brain is affected, and then that can lead to death ultimately -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Nancy Reagan, obviously, has been a big proponent of stem cell research. What's the latest on that, and how effective is that, and will it be potentially in the future for helping people with Alzheimer's Disease?

GUPTA: There a lot of people who believe stem cells are going to be the great answer to all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, including Parkinson's. Here's the critical issue, though, with Parkinson's, for example, there is a very finite area of the brain that is affected, so to actually give stem cells to try to replace neurons as they die is much more feasible.

With Alzheimer's, while it may start in some specific areas of the brain, again, those areas of the brain responsible for memory, personality, things like that, ultimately, the disease process, as you saw in that animation, really spreads to larger parts of the brain.

The question is, how do you try and replace that surgically if it affects so much of the brain later on in life. That's going to be the real challenge. I haven't seen it yet, but again, a lot of people working on stem cells think it might be the great answer ultimately -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We will see. All right, Sanjay Gupta for us this morning, Sanjay, thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Ronald Reagan's White House doctor and close friend Dr. John Hutton is going to join us at 9:00 a.m. right here on AMERICAN MORNING to talk a little bit more about the late president as well.

Still to come this morning, amid more violence, Iraq's new government announces one of its first steps to control the chaos. That story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Forty-nine minutes past the hour now. Time to take a look at the other stories making news today with Daryn Kagan in Atlanta.

Hey again, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, good morning to you once again.

Let's begin in Iraq. That is where a mosque has been burning after an explosion in the holy city of Kufa. A coalition official says the blast was related to stores of ammunition kept at the mosque, but militia members said an American rocket caused that explosion. Meanwhile, Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, announcing a deal today to disband nine militias. That would begin next year. The compromise, however, does not include Mehdi Army, which is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

In health news, drugs that help ward off heart attacks may also, it turns out, prevent cancer. Researchers say that pills that lower cholesterol -- their called statins -- have positive side effects on people with a risk of developing cancer, but doctors say more research will be needed before they start prescribing statins to prevent cancer.

From the world of golf, a big finish in the Memorial Tournament. Ernie Els nailed putt after putt after putt and shot a 66 in each of the last two rounds. He finished 18 under. Also this weekend, a really super showing from the Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus. He made the cut. How about that? One shot under par in the final round of that tournament.

And Harry Potter, talk about making some magic, The boy wizard casting a spell on moviegoers over the weekend. The three-day haul for the latest installment, nearly $93 million, setting a new opening record for the hit franchise. Not surprising, "Shrek 2" came in second. So it will be interesting to see when Shrek and Harry battle it out again next weekend. Largest weekend ever of any of the harry potter movies opening -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Have you seen that yet?

KAGAN: I have not. It's supposed to be a little bit darker and a little bit long, two and a half hour, but...

O'BRIEN: The kids are all teenagers now.

KAGAN: Exactly, and the adults as well.

O'BRIEN: Exactly. All right, Daryn, thanks. Appreciate it.

KAGAN: Still to come this morning, even when he found out he had Alzheimer's, President Reagan never lost his smile. Coming up, we're going to talk to someone who was close to Ronald Reagan in his final years, his White House doctor. That story is ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Time to check in with Jack and the Cafferty File.

Hello.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a good idea. Somebody wrote they didn't like that my tie was tasteless. Is that tasteless?

O'BRIEN: No, people have been saying we match today. So I think that's not tasteless at all then.

CAFFERTY: Thank you. So there!

The File -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says his wife asks him where Osama bin Laden is hiding. He told a group of sailors and Marines about the USS Essex in Singapore that she usually pops the question right when he wakes up in the morning. Rumsfeld says, quote, "When I walk out of bedroom in the morning, my wife frequently rolls over and says, so where is Osama bin Laden." He didn't say how he answered her.

The Broadway shows in the spotlight at the Tony Awards last night here in New York City. Actor Martin Sheen made reference to recent shape-ups in government when he presented the award for best director for a musical.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN SHORT, ACTOR: A musical is only as good as its director. Same also goes for the CIA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: That would be Martin Short. Funny, nevertheless. Short was referring to George Tenet's resignation as director of the CIA.

A Russian government official is telling female employees to stop wearing short skirts and lots of makeup, because it's having a deleterious effect on men. Oleg Schleck (ph) is the guy's name. He's the deputy governor of Illunegrad (ph). He said in a TV interview, "Of course a woman must attract a man's attention, but not so much as to overstep norms and arouse not businesslike, but only animal instincts." Women in his administration will now have to wear business suits and modest makeup and stop with the outlandish jewelry already. Several males were heard to disagree, but not very loud, as they continue to revert back to the old ways over there. Arousing animal instincts.

O'BRIEN: Got to watch those animal instincts.

CAFFERTY: What other kind are there? It's what we got here with.

O'BRIEN: I'm not touching that at all. All right, Jack, thanks.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the many men of J-Lo. Will J-Lo's third trip down the aisle be her last? "90 Second Pop" takes a look at that ahead, in our next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

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Aired June 7, 2004 - 08:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Our special coverage continues live in Simi Valley, California. I'm Bill Hemmer, live here at the presidential library of the late president, the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan. There is a long list of things that go through today and continue over the next five days throughout the week here. The schedule was put out late yesterday. We'll tell you what we expect to happen today here at the library in a moment.

Also to Soledad O'Brien. Good morning, Soledad, on a Monday. How are you?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. Good morning to you as well. Thank you. I'm doing just fine.

Also this morning, we're talking to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, looking at that disease that took away so much from Ronald Reagan and his family in the last 10 years of his life. Well now, is there any new hope for treating Alzheimer's Disease? Sanjay's going to take a look at that this morning for us -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad. Thanks. It was a busy week here planned for the next five days, not only in California, but also in the nation's capital, and again then back here in California.

This is our understanding for how we expect the schedule to go. In about 4 1/2 hours from now, in a fact, at a funeral home in Santa Monica, about 45 minutes from our location here in Simi Valley, a procession will lead carrying the casket and the body of the late President Ronald Reagan. Once they arrive here, a private ceremony will take place with just the Reagan family, then after that time, for a period of about 30 hours, the public will be able to come here. They will be bussed in from a local college, and they will have a period of about 30 hours to view and pay their final respects to the late President Ronald Reagan, a closed casket setting. That will continue on Tuesday.

And then on Wednesday, Ronald Reagan's body will be flown to Andrews Air Force base in Washington D.C. There will be a funeral late on Wednesday night in the Capitol building on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

Then on Thursday, they are expecting huge numbers for the American people to come out; 100,000 expected to do pay their final respects in Washington D.C. Alone. Then on Friday morning, we move to the funeral at the national cathedral in Washington.

After that, the body of Ronald Reagan will be flown back here with his family to the presidential library. In the building behind, the library behind me, it's our understanding there is a presidential seal on the ground there under an oak tree, and that is where Ronald Reagan will find his final resting place in a knoll that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. That proceeding, again, on Friday evening, at sunset.

There is a second plot of land there, not only for Ronald Reagan, but also for his wife, Nancy Reagan, to be reserved at a later date.

That's the schedule as we have it now.

I want to bring in Richard Thornburgh now, former attorney general, came in at the end of the second term of Ronald Reagan, 1988 to be a bit more specific, and we welcome you here to AMERICAN MORNING.

Is it possible for you to relay to us what Ronald Reagan was thinking at the time he was closing out his second term?

RICHARD THORNBURGH, FMR. ATTY. GENERAL: My wife and I visited with President Reagan and Nancy Reagan in their home in California just after he'd left office, and I put the question to him as to what he was most proud of during his presidency, and he answered, without hesitation, the revitalization of our armed forced, the raising of morale, the providing of all the equipment necessary, and that was no surprise to us. He was a consummate patriot. We had a son who was in the submarine service at the time, and it made us feel a little bit more confident about his well-being and about our nation.

HEMMER: In 1988, when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mikhail Gorbachev was visiting the White House at that time. You were there that day. How did he respond? And how did you view him in terms of his leadership when he got the word and the news of that?

THORNBURGH: Well, he was like all of us, stunned and shocked at this very first terrorist attack directed against American citizens, and we had to mobilize all of the law enforcement resources we had, not only in the United States, but obviously worldwide, and I was on a constant round of conversations and discussions with my counterparts in law enforcement around the world to try to develop the evidence in the case that would identify the perpetrators. It took a long time, and it only last year that Moammar Gadhafi of Libya finally acknowledged that it was Libyan agents who had caused that dreadful event, but he was bound and determined to see that that crime didn't go unpunished.

HEMMER: We have heard so many stories over the past day, and we will continue, no doubt, throughout the entire week to get more stories about the life of Ronald Reagan, how he led and how he acted as a president, and also as a man. It's been said that if you wanted to get Ronald Reagan's attention, don't give him numbers, tell him a story. How would you get his attention in a cabinet meeting? THORNBURGH: Well, telling a story to the consummate storyteller of all time was quite a challenge indeed. It's quite true, he was not a policy wonk. He wasn't interested in flip charts, and detailed graphs and charts that outlined your best wishes, but you really knew enough as a cabinet member, a member of his team, to make sure that your message and your desires were communicated in terms of his priorities, because his management style was unique. He would try to recruit the best people he could, and make sure that they were aware of his overarching priorities, but the details and the day-to-day execution were left to his team. He was not a micromanager. So to get his attention, you had to speak to those priorities, and fortunately, I think most of us were wise enough to know to do that.

HEMMER: All right, Richard Thornburgh, thanks for being with us today. I think Nancy Reagan once said, he could tell stories all day long and do it without even repeating himself one time, so, clearly a bank of knowledge and experience as well. Thank you, Richard Thornburgh in D.C. -- Soledad.

THORNBURGH: Thank you, Bill.

O'BRIEN: Well, former President Reagan graduated from Eureka College in Illinois in 1932. Since his death was announced, people have been paying respects at the school's Reagan museum there, and Jonathan Freed is there for us this morning as well.

Jonathan, good morning.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

We're here in the museum where they have more than 3000 items of Reagan memorabilia, about a thousand of them on display at any one time. And the only place with more on display, with more available, is the Reagan Library in California.

Now, come on over here. I want to introduce you to Brian Cycle (ph), who is the curator of the museum.

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN CYCLE (ph): Good morning, Jonathan.

FREED: Now this is a very special case. Could you please open it now for America) sure thing.

CYCLE: Sure thing.

FREED: Now what do we have in here as the centerpiece?

CYCLE: Well, Reagan's college diploma. He had a combined degree in economics and sociology from the college in 1932.

FREED: Now you have a number of items on display here in this collection, many of which reveal something about the man's character that you might not have known otherwise, and I think this letter is one of them, right? CYCLE: Yes, this is a great example. It's a letter to our former college president, Ira Langtson (ph), which Reagan states when he's traveling for GE that he doesn't like to fly.

FREED: That he was afraid to fly?

CYCLE: That's right.

FREED: And you actually can see here in his own handwriting. He says here, "I am one of those prehistoric people who" -- and he underlines it -- "won't fly." Very interesting.

Now there is something else. It's actually, as it turns out, the most valuable piece, right?

CYCLE: That's right. It surprises a lot of people.

FREED: Yes, it surprised me when you told me that this was appraised as the most valuable one.

Let's keep them in suspense. OK, now let's show them what it is.

CYCLE: That's right. It's a pair of cowboy boots with the presidential seal, in which President Reagan told us he wore them, so they're all scuffed up on the bottom.

FREED: So he really did wear them?

CYCLE: That's right.

FREED: All right, Brian Cycle (ph), curator of the museum here at Eureka College. Pleasure. Thank you very much -- Soledad.

CYCLE: Thanks.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jonathan, thanks. Interesting stuff there. Appreciate it.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, Nancy Reagan called it the long goodbye, Alzheimer's Disease. So what's being done to treat this devastating disease?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta's going to pay us a visit just ahead.

And then, on a much lighter note, just how powerful is Harry Potter's spell on moviegoers? There were big numbers this week, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: It's been 10 years since Ronald Reagan was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. More than four million Americans are living with the disease, a number that was doubled in the past 20 years. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from the CNN Center to talk a little bit more about the illness that, in part, claimed the former president's life.

Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, it's one of the most feared, and one of the most common consequences of growing old. People know about Alzheimer's Disease. The numbers are pretty startling. After the age 65, the number of people with Alzheimer's Disease actually doubled every 5 year. By the time someone's 85 years old, about half of the people actually have Alzheimer's. So the numbers are pretty startling there.

There is no cure that people know of, and people really don't know the exact cause yet, but it's worth understanding what people believe the mechanism of Alzheimer's Disease is. We have an animation to try and show that.

But basically, you take a look at the brain. This is the brain, getting down to the very small level here of the neurons. And within that even, what happens sometimes is the little proteins actually get cleaved off, and that sort of travels through the brain and causes something known as plax (ph). That's a term that people think of often with Alzheimer's, also something known as tangles. What happens then is the neuron dies, because it can no longer can receive a signal, and that is what typically is the overlying of cause of Alzheimer's Disease.

Now there has been some research done to try to figure out what all the various mechanisms are. This is believed to be the most common.

Now people don't actually die of Alzheimer's disease. What they typically die is something like a pneumonia or something that is a consequence of growing old, not being able to care for yourself, also related to Alzheimer's -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, then, Sanjay, what kind of research looks promising for people who are now suffering with Alzheimer's Disease, and of course for the folks who may get it in the future?

GUPTA: Well, there are some medications out there, and this is what's shown the most promise recently. A couple of medications, I'll break them down for you, actually to be taken at the early stages of Alzheimer's. The first three there, Aricept, Exelon, Reminyl, certainly people whose family members have Alzheimer's know these medications. They actually work by actually trying to strengthen the neurotransmitters.

The last medication, Namenda, that one is one of the newer ones, Soledad, and the thing that's promising about this medication, is it can actually be given in somewhat later stages of Alzheimer's Disease. So someone's who's actually starting to show some symptoms. Again, the symptoms, you know, memory lapses, personality changes, those can be the early sort of symptoms, but eventually, globally, the entire brain is affected, and then that can lead to death ultimately -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Nancy Reagan, obviously, has been a big proponent of stem cell research. What's the latest on that, and how effective is that, and will it be potentially in the future for helping people with Alzheimer's Disease?

GUPTA: There a lot of people who believe stem cells are going to be the great answer to all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, including Parkinson's. Here's the critical issue, though, with Parkinson's, for example, there is a very finite area of the brain that is affected, so to actually give stem cells to try to replace neurons as they die is much more feasible.

With Alzheimer's, while it may start in some specific areas of the brain, again, those areas of the brain responsible for memory, personality, things like that, ultimately, the disease process, as you saw in that animation, really spreads to larger parts of the brain.

The question is, how do you try and replace that surgically if it affects so much of the brain later on in life. That's going to be the real challenge. I haven't seen it yet, but again, a lot of people working on stem cells think it might be the great answer ultimately -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We will see. All right, Sanjay Gupta for us this morning, Sanjay, thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Ronald Reagan's White House doctor and close friend Dr. John Hutton is going to join us at 9:00 a.m. right here on AMERICAN MORNING to talk a little bit more about the late president as well.

Still to come this morning, amid more violence, Iraq's new government announces one of its first steps to control the chaos. That story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Forty-nine minutes past the hour now. Time to take a look at the other stories making news today with Daryn Kagan in Atlanta.

Hey again, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, good morning to you once again.

Let's begin in Iraq. That is where a mosque has been burning after an explosion in the holy city of Kufa. A coalition official says the blast was related to stores of ammunition kept at the mosque, but militia members said an American rocket caused that explosion. Meanwhile, Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, announcing a deal today to disband nine militias. That would begin next year. The compromise, however, does not include Mehdi Army, which is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

In health news, drugs that help ward off heart attacks may also, it turns out, prevent cancer. Researchers say that pills that lower cholesterol -- their called statins -- have positive side effects on people with a risk of developing cancer, but doctors say more research will be needed before they start prescribing statins to prevent cancer.

From the world of golf, a big finish in the Memorial Tournament. Ernie Els nailed putt after putt after putt and shot a 66 in each of the last two rounds. He finished 18 under. Also this weekend, a really super showing from the Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus. He made the cut. How about that? One shot under par in the final round of that tournament.

And Harry Potter, talk about making some magic, The boy wizard casting a spell on moviegoers over the weekend. The three-day haul for the latest installment, nearly $93 million, setting a new opening record for the hit franchise. Not surprising, "Shrek 2" came in second. So it will be interesting to see when Shrek and Harry battle it out again next weekend. Largest weekend ever of any of the harry potter movies opening -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Have you seen that yet?

KAGAN: I have not. It's supposed to be a little bit darker and a little bit long, two and a half hour, but...

O'BRIEN: The kids are all teenagers now.

KAGAN: Exactly, and the adults as well.

O'BRIEN: Exactly. All right, Daryn, thanks. Appreciate it.

KAGAN: Still to come this morning, even when he found out he had Alzheimer's, President Reagan never lost his smile. Coming up, we're going to talk to someone who was close to Ronald Reagan in his final years, his White House doctor. That story is ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

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O'BRIEN: Time to check in with Jack and the Cafferty File.

Hello.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a good idea. Somebody wrote they didn't like that my tie was tasteless. Is that tasteless?

O'BRIEN: No, people have been saying we match today. So I think that's not tasteless at all then.

CAFFERTY: Thank you. So there!

The File -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says his wife asks him where Osama bin Laden is hiding. He told a group of sailors and Marines about the USS Essex in Singapore that she usually pops the question right when he wakes up in the morning. Rumsfeld says, quote, "When I walk out of bedroom in the morning, my wife frequently rolls over and says, so where is Osama bin Laden." He didn't say how he answered her.

The Broadway shows in the spotlight at the Tony Awards last night here in New York City. Actor Martin Sheen made reference to recent shape-ups in government when he presented the award for best director for a musical.

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MARTIN SHORT, ACTOR: A musical is only as good as its director. Same also goes for the CIA.

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CAFFERTY: That would be Martin Short. Funny, nevertheless. Short was referring to George Tenet's resignation as director of the CIA.

A Russian government official is telling female employees to stop wearing short skirts and lots of makeup, because it's having a deleterious effect on men. Oleg Schleck (ph) is the guy's name. He's the deputy governor of Illunegrad (ph). He said in a TV interview, "Of course a woman must attract a man's attention, but not so much as to overstep norms and arouse not businesslike, but only animal instincts." Women in his administration will now have to wear business suits and modest makeup and stop with the outlandish jewelry already. Several males were heard to disagree, but not very loud, as they continue to revert back to the old ways over there. Arousing animal instincts.

O'BRIEN: Got to watch those animal instincts.

CAFFERTY: What other kind are there? It's what we got here with.

O'BRIEN: I'm not touching that at all. All right, Jack, thanks.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the many men of J-Lo. Will J-Lo's third trip down the aisle be her last? "90 Second Pop" takes a look at that ahead, in our next hour.

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