WebProNews

Tag: dementia

  • Dementia Led to Robin Williams’ Suicide, Says His Widow, But What Is Lewy Body Dementia?

    Dementia may have been a contributing factor in beloved actor Robin Williams’ decision to take his own life last year.

    According to Williams’ widow, the actor was suffering from Lewy body dementia, which can lead to devastating symptoms that include vivid hallucinations and cognitive impairment.

    In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Susan Williams said she decided to speak out on her late husband’s condition to raise awareness about dementia and the devastating effects it had on her husband in the weeks before he died.

    “Lewy body dementia is what killed Robin,” Williams said. “It’s what took his life and that’s what I spent the last year trying to get to the bottom of, what took my husband’s life.”

    According to LifeScience.com, Lewy body dementia results after specific protein bodies cause problems with thinking, mood, movement and behavior.

    It is fairly common and currently affects about 1 million people in the United States, according to the National Institute on Aging. Typically, the disease strikes people at age 50 or older.

    An autopsy revealed last year that the beloved Dead Poet’s Society actor suffered from early-stage Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia. Susan Williams said the doctors who examined the autopsy reports said the disease progression was one of the worst they had ever seen.

    Dr. Dan Kaufer, director at the University of North Carolina Memory Disorders Program, told ABC News the disease can cause fear and extreme anxiety in the patient.

    “With many different presentations, you can see dramatic effects in thinking, emotions and behavior,” Kaufer said.

    Sufferers of this type of dementia can also have extremely graphic hallucinations that can include smell, as well as visual hallucinations.

    While it can be difficult to diagnose while a patient is alive, it can be detected following death, as was the case with Robin Williams. The autopsy of Williams’ brain showed Lewy bodies, as well as other brain changes that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, according to his autopsy report last year.

    Susan Williams said her husband also had depression, anxiety and paranoia, and that his dementia symptoms had begun to worsen shortly before his death in August 2014.

    “He was keeping it together the best that he could, but the last month he could not,” she said. “It’s like the dam broke.”

    As her husband’s dementia symptoms worsened, Susan Williams said she believes he just wanted to take control of his life and his future.

    “I think he was just saying no and I don’t blame him one bit,” Williams said of her husband’s suicide.

  • Alzheimer’s Disease Discovery Leads To Nobel Prize

    Alzheimer’s disease studies have had a major breathrough with new information from Monday’s Nobel Prize winners in medicine.

    Their discovery of cells that act as the brain’s gps could have a serious impact on our understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease works, and therefore, how it can best be treated.

    British-American researcher John O’Keefe, co-winner of the 2014 prize with Norwegians May-Britt and Edvard Moser, believes that a better understanding of how these cells degrade is the key to understanding Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia in general.

    “We’re now setting up to do much more high-tech studies where we hope to follow the progression of disease over time,” said O’Keefe.

    He added, “This will give us the first handle as to when and where the disease starts and how we can attack it at a the molecular and cellular level.”

    A major discovery in the foggy science that is Alzheimer’s disease has been long-awaited.

    Millions are affected by Alzheimer’s disease each year, but there has yet to be a solid cure or treatment. Undertanding of the disease is still flailing and development of drugs has seen only one failure after another.

    Could this be the Alzheimer’s disease information that is needed to help complete the puzzle?

    The information garnered from this research won’t have immediate effects, but the basic understanding it provides as to how the disease progresses is seen as vital in the medical community.

    “Understanding how the healthy brain functions, especially areas of the brain crucial to learning and memory, is incredibly important in understanding what changes occur during conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease,” said Doug Brown, director of research and development at Britain’s Alzheimer’s Society.

    Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of Dementia, a condition which affects 44 million people worldwide. That number is expected to jump to 135 million by 2050.

    New information is sorely needed to protect our generation and future generations from Alzheimer’s disease. Hopefully these new discoveries will lead to medical advances soon.

  • Vitamin D Deficiency Linked To Dementia

    Vitamin D Deficiency Linked To Dementia

    It is common knowledge that vitamin D is beneficial and necessary, but a new study shows what kind of problems a vitamin D deficiency can cause.

    According to the study, adult and elderly people who do not get enough vitamin D could be at a higher risk of developing dementia. Previous studies had already identified a link between dementia and vitamin D, but the new study shows a direct correlation between the two.

    “We expected to find an association between low vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising,” lead author David J. Llewellyn, researcher at the University of Exeter Medical School, said in a press release. “We actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated.”

    Doctors say that adults, who do not wish to take vitamin D supplements, can try to get the vitamin with food or by spending a few hours in the sunlight each day. Eggs, milk and tuna all contain vitamin D as well.

    Researchers were quick to say that although the study proves that there is a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and dementia, it did not prove that a lack of vitamin D can actually cause dementia.

    New studies are currently being conducted to determine if eating foods that contain vitamin D will help reduce the risk of dementia or at least delay it.

    “Clinical trials are now needed to establish whether eating foods such as oily fish or taking vitamin D supplements can delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” the lead researcher of the study said.

    Until these studies are complete, doctors recommend that adults focus on eating foods that are rich in vitamin D, spend a little time outside each day and only take vitamin D supplements if they are doing these things and still have a vitamin D deficiency,

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Long-Term Care Needs Improvement For Dementia Patients, Shows Study

    Long-Term Care Needs Improvement For Dementia Patients, Shows Study

    The baby boomer generation is now aging, a situation that is bringing with it a new set of challenges for the U.S. This demographic shift is being most strongly felt in the healthcare industry, where the already burdened American health infrastructure is preparing for an influx of millions of new elderly patients. The Affordable Care Act included new attempts to prepare the industry for these challenges, but many specific problems are still presenting themselves.

    A new study by the non-profit RAND Corporation is demonstrating one way the American healthcare system may not be prepared for these new elderly patients. The study shows just how unprepared the U.S. is for a quickly-increasing number of seniors with dementia and related conditions.

    The study estimates that around 15 percent of Americans over the age of 70 suffer from some type of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses in particular are expected to triple by the year 2050.

    The study also warns of the rising costs to the U.S. associated with dementia. RAND estimates that the annual cost of dementia care in the U.S. could double to between $318 million and $430 million by the year 2040.

    The RAND study focuses specifically on ways that long-term care for dementia patients can be improved. The organization suggests policy initiatives that include increasing public awareness, improving access to long-term dementia care, and promoting higher-quality care. More support for the families of those with dementia is also suggested, including monetary support. The study also suggests that linking long-term healthcare insurance to normal health insurance could better help families who are struggling financially to care for a loved one with dementia.

    “There is no one single path that is the best one to follow to provide better care for people with dementia and improve support for their caregivers,” Regina Shih, lead author of the study and a behavioral scientist at RAND. “But what is clearly needed is more and quicker action around a set of recommendations to respond to this large and growing problem.”

    Image via ThinkStock

  • Depression A Risk Factor For Dementia: New Study

    A new study published in the scientific journal Neurology on July 30 showed that depression is a risk factor for dementia. The results indicate that treating depression in older patients may stave off some of the symptoms of dementia related to thinking and memory skills.

    “This is a risk factor we should take seriously,” said lead author Robert Wilson, senior neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University. “Treating depression can reduce the risk of dementia in older people.”

    The study followed 1,764 people with an average age of 77, who had no thinking or memory problems at the start of the study. Over a period of nearly eight years, researchers screened study participants for symptoms of depression, while also testing their thinking and memory skills.

    During the study, about half the participants developed mild problems with thinking and memory skills, which often act as a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. 18 percent or 315 study participants developed dementia.

    The researchers found that high levels of depression prior to a diagnosis of dementia are linked to a more drastic decrease in thinking and memory skill later on. Overall, depression accounted for a 4.4 percent of the difference in mental decline that could not be attributed to dementia-related damage found in the brain.

    However, onset of dementia did not seem to be associated with an increase in depression. In fact, the opposite seemed true.

    “We found that people who are developing dementia did not become more depressed as they developed dementia, they actually became less depressed,” Wilson said.

    “As people lose their thinking and memory skills, it becomes harder to become depressed and stay depressed. Depression depends on a certain continuity of experience that becomes disrupted as you develop dementia. It’s left to the rest of us to feel depressed as we watch our loved ones slip into dementia.

    “We must try to identify structures and functions in the brain that are linked to depression in old age and could help explain depression’s link to dementia. That gives us a better chance of knowing how we should best treat depression in a way that will move the bar and reduce risk of dementia.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fish Oil Supplements Protect Against Alzheimer’s

    A new study suggests that fish oil might be one of the most effective preventative measures against developing Alzheimer’s disease, for those who aren’t genetically inclined to develop the common form of dementia.

    There is presently no cure for Alzheimer’s; it is a progressive disease and eventually leads to death. It is most often diagnosed in those over 65 years of age, and is projected to affect 1 in 85 globally by 2050. It is presently the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

    Researchers from Rhode Island Hospital studied three groups of adults ages 55-90, utilizing neuropsychological tests and brain magnetic resonance imaging biannually. The participants in the study, all part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), comprised 229 adults with no signs of the disease; 397 who were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment; and 193 with Alzheimer’s. The ADNI study ran from 2003 until 2010.

    Results showed that adults who had not displayed any symptoms of the onset of Alzheimer’s saw a significantly less decline in cognitive function and brain shrinkage than those who weren’t taking the substance. Cognitive decline was measured using the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-cog) and the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE).

    Though, researchers pointed that those who are genetically predisposed to developing Alzheimer’s, carriers of the APOE (apolipoprotein E) gene, might not be able to metabolize DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), the fatty acid in fish oil thought to promote cognitive benefits. Yet, taking fish oil is suggested regardless, as it might prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s from being triggered late in life.

    The most widely available dietary source of DHA comes from cold-water, oily fish, such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies and sardines.

    Doctor Andrew Weil explains some fish oil facts:

    The Hodge Twins reveal that a man who doesn’t take fish oil is pretty much a female, but likewise advise not to take fish oil:

    Aside from cognitive benefits, the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil have been shown to help in preventing heart disease. Other studies have revealed that fish oil might be beneficial to those who suffer from clinical depression, anxiety, cancer, psoriasis and macular degeneration, although benefits have yet to be proven.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • New Alzheimer’s Test Promising For Early Detection

    Researchers have found that a simple eye exam could be critical in detecting Alzheimer’s Disease years, if not decades, before memory loss begins.

    Beta amyloids are proteins that look like bright dots and are typically found in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients. However, new the new studies have shown that the beta amyloids are also found in the retina of the eye.

    “What makes it unique is that the retina is actually an extension of the brain and so we think that a lot of the pathology that is occurring in the brain may also be occurring in the retina,” said Dr. James Galvin is a neurologist at New York University Langone Medical Center.

    Shaun Frost, an Australian researcher, tested 40 people using a liquid form of curcumin – a natural substance that makes curry yellow. The curcumin sticks to the beta amyloids, making it possible for doctors to see the proteins with a simple eye exam. Frost revealed that he was able to identify 100 percent of the participants who had the disease.

    Because Alzheimer’s currently has no cure, many people have wondered why it is so important to detect it early on. Galvin explained that early detection is vital to treating the disease. “Well, for several reasons. So we have medicines today that treat the symptoms of the disease, so you’d like to be able to pick up the disease as soon as possible, so you can start someone on an available medicine. But more importantly, in order to develop new therapies, we need to be able to identify people at the earliest stages,” Galvin said.

    The full study includes 200 individuals and is expected to be completed later this year. With this test, Frost is confident that they will be able to detect the disease 15-20 years before an official diagnosis.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Jim McMahon And Other Former Players Sue NFL

    Jim McMahon, former Bears quarterback, is in the fight of his life right now as one of several former players named in a federal lawsuit filed last month accusing the NFL of dispensing narcotics to keep players on the field when they shouldn’t have been.

    Now the players are paying the price. McMahon, for example, has suffered many side effects of multiple concussions. He suffers from a broken neck that he says the team trainers knew about, but didn’t tell him. He suffers from kidney damage, broken ribs, and an addiction to pain killers.

    And worst of all, he suffers from dementia.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T1BzssI4gg

    He was diagnosed five years ago with dementia. He began to notice symptoms after he was forgetting simple things like people’s names when they met him. However, he became worried and sought help when he began forgetting the names of friends he had for years.

    He would get lost on his way home. He recalls such frustrating moments as having to call his girlfriend, Laurie Navon, to ask how to get home.

    He said of the feeling, ”I don’t know where I’m at. I don’t know how I got on this road. I told her, ‘Aliens abducted me and put me over here.”’

    Navon said that his mood swings were out of control, that he was ”mad at himself, mad at the world.”

    During a very dark time, Jim McMahon thought about taking his life. The pain in his head was so bad that he would lie on his bed in the dark for weeks, only leaving for appearances.

    ”I am glad I don’t have any weapons in my house or else I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be here,” McMahon said. ”It got to be that bad.”

    Fortunately doctors in New York have been able to drain the fluid off of his brain every few months that was causing so much pain. Spinal fluid was leaking through a rotation in one of his vertebrae from a neck injury. The doctors invented a machine to realign his neck and allow the fluid to drain.

    McMahon is hoping that by speaking out and being involved in this lawsuit against the NFL that he can prevent this mistreatment of players from continuing.

    ”The NFL continues to make billions and billions of dollars every year,” McMahon said. ”And some of these guys are homeless. They don’t know who they are, and they were the ones who built this brand to where it’s at.”

    Time will tell if justice will be served in this case and if things will shake up in the world of football.

    Image via YouTube

  • Jim McMahon Confesses To Suicidal Thoughts, Dementia

    In 1985 Jim McMahon was the quarterback for one of the most popular Super Bowl championship teams in NFL history. The rebel-type QB with the spiked hair and dark shades relished the hype and basked in the spotlight.

    But that was 29 years ago.

    More recently, McMahon would leave his house and not remember how to get back home. He would need to call his girlfriend Laurie and say, “I don’t know where I’m at. I don’t know how I got on this road. Aliens abducted me and put me over here.”

    He would also lie in the dark for weeks suffering from painful headaches. And in his most oppressive hours, he would even consider ending all the suffering by taking his own life.

    McMahon spoke candidly yesterday in a news conference about what his life is like today, after years of playing football, after taking repeated hits to the head. ”I am glad I don’t have any weapons in my house or else I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be here. It got to be that bad.” He added, “I can see how some of these guys have ended their lives, because of the pain.”

    The former champion is currently in Chicago because he is being honored today by the Sports Legacy Institute, a group that has been studying what happens to the brain after trauma.

    Here’s the truth about concussions. They can lead to early onset dementia, severe depression, and suicidal thoughts. But McMahon is an example that there is some hope. He says that his suicidal thoughts have passed largely in part due to a treatment that drains spinal fluid from the brain. However, he will most likely have to deal with the dementia for the rest of his life.

    McMahon is currently fighting back. He and several other former NFL players have filed a federal lawsuit accusing teams of handing out harmful pain medications to make sure players could get back on the field, with absolutely no concern for their long-term health.

    Additionally, McMahon is part of larger class-action suit against the NFL for knowingly putting guys back on the field who had concussions, even though the effects of those injuries were life threatening, “The NFL continues to make billions and billions of dollars every year. And some of these guys are homeless. They don’t know who they are, and they were the ones who built this brand to where it’s at.”

    Several former NFL players, including McMahon, are challenging the $765 million concussion settlement between the thousands of ex-players and the league. They feel that the funds won’t cover the 20,000 who need it, and the money will fall short of providing for players with the most serious cases of head trauma.

    McMahon estimates that he had three to five diagnosed concussions and many more concussions that were not officially diagnosed throughout his football career. The former quarterback also admitted that due to injuries like broken ribs and a broken neck that he developed an addiction to painkillers.

    Image via Jim McMahon, Twitter

  • Dementia Treatment Research Looks At Oxytocin: Study

    A team of researchers from Ontario, Canada, have discovered that injecting a single dose of the neuropeptide oxytocin, which is normally produced in the hypothalamus region of the brain, can have a demonstrable effect on patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, according to a research study.

    Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a “devastating, progressive, neurodegenerative disease for which there is presently no available cure,” the researchers wrote in the introduction of their research paper. Patients with the behavioral variant of FTD have difficultly functioning socially and reading emotional cues, often displaying indifference and even callousness toward close family members.

    Researchers included 20 patients with FTD in the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study, and had patients complete standard neuropsychological tests of memory, language, and executive functions. Patients also completed a Neuropsychiatric Inventory and a Frontal Behavioral Inventory.

    Patients were randomly assigned to receive either a dose of oxytocin or a placebo. Twenty minutes after administration of either oxytocin or the placebo, patients attempted to complete a “battery of emotion validated processing tasks,” which included “Facial Expression Recognition and Intensity,” among others.

    Results suggest that patients who were administered oxytocin have a reduced identification of expressions relating to anger and fear, along with some sub-items that were not statistically significant. According to one of the psychological models used by the researchers, diminished recognition of negative emotional expressions or “threat cues” can possibly reduce aggressive behavior.

    This is in line with previous research concerning the administration of oxytocin on healthy adults, where administration of oxytocin was associated with increased cooperative behaviors, increased social processing, and increased empathy.

    Researchers note that this study was the first in examining oxytocin effects on patients with FTD and that while the results do not warrant using oxytocin as a treatment yet, they are promising and should be followed up with more studies.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Alzheimer’s May Be Predicted by Brain Plaques

    According to a new study conducted by Duke Medicine, brain scans using radioactive dye may help to predict an impending development of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as future cognitive decline in otherwise healthy adults.

    In an article published in the online journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers revealed that identification of residue that forms in the brain called silent beta-amyloid plaque could help direct treatment options for patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Lead author P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the neurocognitive disorders program at Duke commented, “Our research found that healthy adults and those with mild memory loss who have a positive scan for these plaques have a much faster rate of decline on memory, language, and reasoning over three years.”

    Information describing how PET scans are conducted:

    Alzheimer’s disease is typically diagnosed based on the patient’s history, history from relatives and an assessment of the patient’s behaviors. The affliction is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people worldwide by 2050. There is no cure for the disease, and is progressive, eventually leading to death. While AD is mostly seen in patients over 65 years old, it can manifest in much younger patients. There presently is no cure, and is the most expensive disease in the United States.

    The Duke study comprised 152 adults aged 50 or older, and was intended to discern if positron emission tomography (PET) scans could predict cognitive decline. Radioactive dye called florbetapir (Amyvid) was used during the PET scans, which binds to the beta-amyloid plaques that are indicative of Alzheimer’s. The dye allowed researchers to discern what regions of the brain plaques were forming. The PET scans were then rated as positive or negative.

    Of the participants who had positive scans, 35 percent progressed to full-blown Alzheimer’s, compared to 10 percent who had negative scans. Ninety percent of those with negative scans, who had displayed mild cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study did not progress to Alzheimer’s. The study has revealed the value of PET imaging in identifying patients who aren’t likely to see a progressive cognitive decline.

    Doraiswamy commented, “Having a negative scan could reassure people that they are not likely to be at risk for progression in the near future.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Kimberly Williams-Paisley on Her Mother’s Dementia

    Kimberly Williams-Paisley recently talked about her painful journey with her mother, who has a rare form of dementia.

    The Nashville star admitted she had to learn how to love her mother again, but in a new way.

    Over the past decade, Williams-Paisley has watched her mother go from the woman she knew all her life, to a stranger. No longer able to grab things without dropping them, pronounce words appropriately or even remember who her family is, the actress’ beloved mother eventually had to move into a long-term care facility.

    “The move was the hardest change my tight-knit family has ever had to endure,” Williams-Paisley said in an essay. “Our visits were agonizing for me. I couldn’t look at her without seeing a fading picture of who she used to be. I resented this mostly manic, dangerous, crazy woman who had taken over my mother’s body.”

    But now the actress has learned to love her mother for who she is now, instead of holding onto the love she had for who her mother used to be.

    After Williams-Paisley connected with other women who were going through the same turmoil with their own mothers, she decided she needed to change the way she loved her mom; she was going to love her in an “innocent” way, much like her toddler son loved.

    See how Williams-Paisely balances her life, here:

    Now the star helps her mother take care of herself and completes small tasks for her, such as putting on lotion. She describes her mother as a “new” mom, and this changed mindset is perhaps one of the reasons why the actress says she is now able to think about how her mother used to be, without breaking down.

    “With almost all language gone, she and I discovered a new way to say, ‘I get you. You understand me. We love each other’,” she said.

    Image via Twitter

  • Coweta Woman Found Injured, But Alive

    Coweta Woman Found Injured, But Alive

    A Georgia woman has been found alive after an exhaustive search over the weekend turned up no leads.

    78-year old Eleanor Alexander was found in a wooded area not far from her Coweta home, covered in bug bites and injured from where she’d walked into a barb-wire fence. Alexander suffers from dementia, a fact that was never far from the minds of those looking for her after she disappeared from her house sometime between Friday night and early Saturday morning.

    “There are a lot of ponds and lakes in the area, and we worried she had fallen or stumbled in to one of them,” Coweta County Sheriff’s Lt. Col James Yarbrough said. “During the middle of the night, we were concerned about animals getting to her.”

    Dozens of officers and volunteers helped in the search for Alexander, some with dogs who reportedly aided in finding her. She was immediately flown to Atlanta Medical Center, where officials say she’s doing well.

  • Alzheimer’s Treatment Could Restore Brain Cell Memory

    A new study has shown that a drug intended to treat diabetes could restore memory in brain cells affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

    The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, demonstrated that a drug named AC253, which never made it to market as a diabetes treatment, could block the effects of amyloid protein in the brain. Amyloids can lead to brain cell death, and are found in abnormally large amounts in the brains of dementia patients.

    “This is very important because it tells us that drugs like this might be able to restore memory, even after Alzheimer’s disease may have set in,” said Dr. Jack Jhamandas, the principal investigator on the study and a researcher at the University of Alberta.

    The researchers looked at brain tissue samples from animals with Alzheimer’s and tested their memory capacity by shocking them with electrical impulses. When AC253 was given to the brain cells, it was found through further shock memory tests that the cells had had their memory capacity restored to levels similar to normal brain cells.

    “I think what we discovered may be part of the solution, but I can’t say it will be the solution,” said Jhamandas. “There is a long list of drugs and approaches that haven’t panned out as expected in the fight against Alzheimer’s. I don’t think one drug or approach will solve Alzheimer’s disease because it’s a complicated disease, but I am cautiously optimistic about our discovery and its implications.”

    The researchers will continue their testing to see if the drug can be used to prevent the impairment of behavior and cognition in animals that will develop Alzheimer’s. The tests will take at least a year to complete, but Jhamandas believes clinical trials could begin within five years.

  • Dementia Alleviated in Mice Using Antibody Blocker

    A new study has shown that mice bred for Alzheimer’s testing that were given an antibody that blocked the immune molecule p40 showed “substantial” improvements in behavioral testing. The effects were seen even when the mice had already begun showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

    The study was conducted by Dr. Frank Heppner, director for the Institute of Neuropathology at Charité and Dr. Burkhard Becher, professor at the Institute for Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich. The researchers looked at the accumulation of abnormal proteins, specifically amyloid beta, in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The demonstrated that “turning off” specific immune system signal transmitters (cytokines) reduced the amyloid beta deposits in mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The strongest effects came when p40, which is a component of certain cytokines, was affected: amyloid beta deposits were reduced by around 65%.

    Based on the results of the new study, the level of p40 in the brain fluid of Alzheimer’s patients is higher. This corroborates a previous study that found increased p40 levels in the blood plasma of Alzheimer’s patients. Though this suggests the study on mice will have relevance for human therapies, the authors of the study emphasized that the mechanism of p40 in Alzheimer’s disease “requires additional clarification. However, the researchers are confident enough that they are currently planning to find an industrial partner to begin the steps toward clinical studies in humans.

    “Based on the safety data in patients, clinical studies could now be implemented without delay,” said the study’s authors. “Now, the goal is to bring the new therapeutic approach to Alzheimer patients quickly.”

    (Image courtesy UZH)

  • Dementia Risk Reduced by Physical Activity, Says Study

    A new study shows that older people who regularly engage in physical activity reduce their risk of dementia.

    The study, published this week in the journal Stroke, showed that by regularly exercising, older, non-disabled people can reduce their risk of vascular-related dementia by 40%, and their risk of cognitive impairment of any cause by 60%. These effects were independent of age, education, changes in the brain’s white matter, or even a previous history of diabetes or stroke. Researchers stated that the findings are part of an increasing body of evidence that shows physical activity promotes brain health.

    “We strongly suggest physical activity of moderate intensity at least 30 minutes three times a week to prevent cognitive impairment,” said Dr. Ana Verdelho, lead author of the study and a neuroscience researcher at the University of Lisbon, Santa Maria Hospital. “This is particularly important for people with vascular risk factors such as hypertension, stroke or diabetes.”

    The study looked at 639 people in a prospective multinational European study aged 60 to 70 years old. They were given yearly comprehensive cognitive assessments for three years. 55% of the patients were women and almost 64% stated that they were active for at least 30 minutes a day three times a week. At the beginning and end of the study, researchers performed MRI tests on the patients to study the white matter changes in their brains.

    “Damage of the cerebral white matter is implicated in cognitive problems including depression, walking difficulties and urinary complaints,” said Verdelho. “White matter changes are very common in older people and mainly associated with vascular risk factors like hypertension and stroke.”

    After three years, 90 of the patients had dementia. 54 with vascular dementia, which stems from impaired blood flow to the brain, and 34 patients met the criteria for Alzheimer’s disease.

    For optimal health, the American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.

  • Alzheimer’s Could Be Linked to Brain Inflammation

    Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia that affects memory, thinking, and behavior, has been linked to inflammation of the brain at an early age, according to a recent study. In order to investigate the theory, scientists caused brain inflammation in unborn laboratory mice. According to researchers, an infection induced during pregnancy resulted in enough neurological changes to cause memory issues down the road.

    “It seems likely that chronic inflammation due to infection could be an early event in the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” study leader Dr Irene Knuesel explained. The research was published in the Journal of Neuro-inflammation.

    Genetically engineered mice, which were bred to contain the Alzheimer’s-associated brain protein amyloid-beta, were hit the hardest by these infections. Scientists associated with the study hope that this discovery could increase the role of anti-inflammatory drugs in Alzheimer’s treatment. However, according to Dr Marie Janson of Alzheimer’s Research UK, these drugs have not proven successful in clinical trials.

    The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is currently unclear. However, those with a history of AD in their family are thought to be at a higher risk than others. The first signs of the disease, particularly in persons 60 years or older, is forgetfulness. Other symptoms include difficulty with emotional behavior, language, memory, and cognitive skills. Getting lost on familiar routes, trouble naming and/or recognizing common objects, personality changes, and a sudden loss of interest in hobbies are often early signs of the disease.

  • Computer Models Help Predict Dementia Patterns

    Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have developed a computer program that has tracked the manner in which different forms of dementia spread within a human brain. They say their mathematic model can be used to predict where and approximately when an individual patient’s brain will suffer from the spread, neuron to neuron, of “prion-like” toxic proteins — a process they say underlies all forms of dementia.

    Their findings, published in the March 22 issue of Neuron, could help patients and their families confirm a diagnosis of dementia and prepare in advance for future cognitive declines over time. In the future — in an era where targeted drugs against dementia exist — the program might also help physicians identify suitable brain targets for therapeutic intervention, says the study’s lead researcher, Ashish Raj, Ph.D., an assistant professor of computer science in radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

    “Think of it as a weather radar system, which shows you a video of weather patterns in your area over the next 48 hours,” says Dr. Raj. “Our model, when applied to the baseline magnetic resonance imaging scan of an individual brain, can similarly produce a future map of degeneration in that person over the next few years or decades.

    “This could allow neurologists to predict what the patient’s neuroanatomic and associated cognitive state will be at any given point in the future. They could tell whether and when the patient will develop speech impediments, memory loss, behavioral peculiarities, and so on,” he says. “Knowledge of what the future holds will allow patients to make informed choices regarding their lifestyle and therapeutic interventions.

    “At some point we will gain the ability to target and improve the health of specific brain regions and nerve fiber tracts,” Dr. Raj says. “At that point, a good prediction of a subject’s future anatomic state can help identify promising target regions for this intervention. Early detection will be key to preventing and managing dementia.”

    The computational model, which Dr. Raj developed, is the latest, and one of the most significant, validations of the idea that dementia is caused by proteins that spread through the brain along networks of neurons. It extends findings that were widely reported in February that Alzheimer’s disease starts in a particular brain region, but spreads further via misfolded, toxic “tau” proteins. Those studies, by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital, were conducted in mouse models and focused only on Alzheimer’s disease.

    In this study, Dr. Raj details how he developed the mathematical model of the flow of toxic proteins, and then demonstrates that it correctly predicted the patterns of degeneration that results in a number of different forms of dementia.

    He says his model is predicated on the recent understanding that all known forms of dementia are accompanied by, and likely caused by, abnormal or “misfolded” proteins. Proteins have a defined shape, depending on their specific function — but proteins that become misshapen can produce unwanted toxic effects. One example is tau, which is found in a misfolded state in the brains of both Alzheimer’s patients and patients with frontal temporal dementia (FTD). Other proteins, such as TDP43 and ubiquitin, are also found in FTD, and alpha synuclein is found in Parkinson’s disease.

    These proteins are called “prion-like” because misfolded, or diseased, proteins induce the misfolding of other proteins they touch down a specific neuronal pathway. Prion diseases (such as mad cow disease) that involve transmission of misfolded proteins are thought to be infectious between people. “There is no evidence that Alzheimer’s or other dementias are contagious in that way, which is why their transmission is called prion-like.”

    Dr. Raj calls his model of trans-neuronal spread of misfolded proteins “very simple.” It models the same process by which any gas diffuses in air, except that in the case of dementias the diffusion process occurs along connected neural fiber tracts in the brain.

    “This is a common process by which any disease-causing protein can result in a variety of dementias,” he says.

    The model identifies the neural sub-networks in the brain into which misfolded proteins will collect before moving on to other brain areas that are connected by networks of neurons. In the process the proteins alter normal functioning of all brain areas they visit.

    “What is new and really quite remarkable is the network diffusion model itself, which acts on the normal brain connectivity network and manages to reproduce many known aspects of whole brain disease patterns in dementias,” Dr. Raj says. “This provides a very simple explanation for why different dementias appear to target specific areas of the brain.”

    In the study, he was able to match patterns from the diffusion model, which traced protein disbursal in a healthy brain, to the patterns of brain atrophy observed in patients with either Alzheimer’s disease or FTD. This degeneration was measured using MRI and other tools that could quantify the amount of brain volume loss experienced in each region of the patient’s brain. Co-author Amy Kuceyeski, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow who works with Dr. Raj, helped analyze brain volume measurements in the diseased brains.

    “Our study demonstrates that such a spreading mechanism leads directly to the observed patterns of atrophy one sees in various dementias,” Dr. Raj says. “While the classic patterns of dementia are well known, this is the first model to relate brain network properties to the patterns and explain them in a deterministic and predictive manner.”