Friday, February 27, 2009

Rate of memory decline differs by dementia type

Reuters UK

By Scott Baltic

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The rate at which people with dementia lose their memory differs significantly according to the type of dementia they have, new research from France suggests. The research also highlights the importance of early health care in elderly people who develop dementia.

After Alzheimer's disease (AD) alone, AD with cerebrovascular disease and vascular dementia are the leading causes of dementia. Vascular dementia is often associated with stroke. High blood pressure and smoking are risk factors.

Little is known about the progression of either AD with cerebrovascular disease or vascular dementia, Dr. Florence Pasquier of Hopital Salengro in Lille and colleagues note.

To investigate, they followed......read the whole story

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Mechanisms That Prevent Alzheimer's Disease: Enzymatic Activity Plays Key Role

ScienceDaily— In a project involving the collaboration of several institutes, research scientists of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have succeeded in gaining further insight in the functioning of endogenous mechanisms that protect against the development of Alzheimer's disease. It was found that the activity of the enzyme α-secretase is mainly responsible for the protective effect.

"In the past, we postulated that the enzyme α-secretase was involved in preventing the formation of cerebral plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease and also enhanced cerebral functions, such as learning and memory," explained Professor Falk Fahrenholz of the Institute of Biochemistry. His research group has been working in cooperation with the Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the university's Faculty of Medicine and the Central Animal Laboratory Facility (ZVTE) to discover the mechanism for the beneficial effects of α-secretase. The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (JAD) presents the results of this project in its February 2009 issue.

α-secretase is an endogenous enzyme that is present in the nerve cells of the brain, where it is responsible for the cleavage of an Aβ into Aβ domain. The result is a soluble protein fragment that promotes the growth of nerve cells and thus prevents the development of cerebral deterioration caused by Aβ. However, if the enzyme β-secretase is active, a chain reaction is initiated that subsequently results in the development....read the whole article

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Boston Docs Study Promising New Alzheimer's Drug

BOSTON (WBZ) ―

Alzheimer's May Affect Patients' Memory Earlier (2/19/2009)
Massachusetts researchers are looking for patients to test a promising new Alzheimer's drug. Experts believe it could be the first drug to actually slow down the disease.

Irene Courchesne was diagnosed with early symptoms of Alzheimer's three years ago. "Things started to get really funny," Irene said. "I couldn't remember. I used to have to go to court and I couldn't get my stuff correct."

That's why Irene decided to take part in a new clinical trial being done at the Boston University School of Medicine.

Researchers at B.U. are testing a promising new drug which they believe can actually slow down the progression of Alzheimer's, instead of just temporarily treating the symptoms like current treatments.

Dr. Robert Stern, co-director of the Alzheimer's disease Clinical and Research Program at the B.U. School of Medicine explains, "This new drug has as its goal the ability to suck out the amyloid proteins from the brain which we think is the cause of Alzheimer's and will dramatically alter the course of Alzheimer's disease."

Irene Courchesne, who enrolled in the study in December, says she started to notice....read the whole article

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Small Vessel Injury from Hypertension or Diabetes May Lead to Dementia

SeniorJournal.com
One-third of risk for dementia attributed to small vessel disease in autopsy study
A large autopsy study of senior citizens who had lived in the Seattle area has found that as many as one-third of those who had dementia before they died also had small vessel damage in their brains – the type of cumulative injury that can result from hypertension or diabetes. The researchers say it suggests this accounts for a third of the risk for dementia.

In the autopsied brains of people who had experienced cognitive decline and dementia, 45 percent of the risk for dementia was associated with pathologic changes of Alzheimer's disease.

Another 10 percent of dementia risk was associated with.....read the whole article

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Friday, February 20, 2009

Gender-wise absorbent briefs differ in more ways than 1

If your loved one with dementia is incontinent, you may be interested in this
Kimberly-Clark to introduce new product for $1.2 billion market
By Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel

Neenah - On a conference room table inside the sprawling campus of Kimberly-Clark Corp., Greg Fries lays out the past, present and future of adult absorbent underwear.

There's a 1980s version of the Depend brand of incontinence products, an all-white, padded item that looks to the untrained eye like a giant diaper. There's a 1990s version, what amounts to unisex underwear, no-nonsense and no-frills.

And, coming to store shelves by early spring, there is what the company calls "its first line of gender-specific adult absorbent underwear."

That would be Depend protective underwear for men and women. There's a pink waistband for women and a blue one for men. Moreover, the leg opening for men is narrower than it is for women.

"One of the key insights we got was.......read the whole story

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Readers differ on usefulness of drugs for Alzheimer's

Orlando Sentinal
Bard Lindeman | Special To The Sentinel

The inherent frustrations of Alzheimer's disease, along with the frightening aspects linked to this incurable and fatal anomaly, came tumbling out of our weekly mailbag.

Here were strong voices, demanding to be heard:

"I was disappointed with your [recent] Alzheimer's article, which made it seem totally useless to try to do anything for it," begins an agitated woman in Central Florida. "My [late] husband, a thoughtful, caring individual right up to his death . . . did take Aricept, which I felt helped him immensely . . ."

Perhaps, yet family members in the unwelcome role as caregivers, on call day and night, cannot be expected to serve as objective evaluators. In The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic, (Doubleday; 2001) author David Shenk paints a scene in which a caregiver... read the whole article

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Education level doesn't affect Alzheimer's risk

Bloomberg
Highly educated people don't withstand the impact of Alzheimer's disease any better than those with less schooling, according to a study that contradicts previous research.

The study of 6,500 people in Chicago, published online by the journal Neurology, found no link between a person's educational level and their rate of decline to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The results suggest doctors have to watch....read the whole article

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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Important discovery regarding Alzheimer’s disease

Digital Journal | Science
Reports have appeared that a possible drug to deal with Alzheimer’s disease seems to be nearer to becoming a distinct reality.

Drugs company Galapagos announced this today in the scientific journal Science.

The company says that it will be able to start developing a possible medicine that could remedy Alzheimer’s disease.

In order to manufacture a successful medicine you need to have good access to the source of the disease.

The Galapagos company says to have found this medicine target for Alzheimer’s disease.

Galapagos........read the whole article

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Dementia destroys brain structure, leading to loss of function and memory

StarNewsOnline.com
By Veronica Gonzalez
Staff Writer

Imagine if you forgot how to walk. Now think about losing the ability to express yourself as words slip from your mind. What if you couldn’t take care of yourself because you didn’t know how?

For people living with dementia, this is an all-too familiar reality.

But why does this happen?

In Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia, the death of brain cells triggers memory loss. The part of the brain that’s affected by this is the outer lining, called the cortex.

By contrast, in the less common form of dementia called frontotemporal dementia, brain cell death in the front and temporal lobes can be blamed for washing away a person’s ability to control behavior, make decisions, VERb emotions or communicate.

“Frontotemporal dementia is very strongly under-diagnosed,” Dr. Dan Kaufer, director of the UNC Memory Disorders Program. “If they don’t get to see experts who know what to look for, they are often lumped together with Alzheimer’s.”

Typically, what causes the brain to deteriorate is.......read the whole article

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Friday, February 13, 2009

New Target For Medicine To Combat Alzheimer's: Scientists Confirm Protein's Key Role

ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2009) — VIB scientists connected to the Center for Human Heredity have demonstrated that a particular protein is extremely well suited to be a target for a new medicine against Alzheimer's disease. Their findings are published in the journal Science.

collaboration with Galapagos, the biotechnology company that discovered the protein's role in Alzheimer's disease and that will now further the search for an appropriate medicine.

Two thirds of all patients with dementia suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is a disease that gradually destroys brain cells, with the result that the mental capacity of patients with Alzheimer's gradually declines. At first, memory begins to fail, but the patient's cognitive capabilities also deteriorate as the disease progresses.

Today, this disease cannot yet be cured. Current medicines for Alzheimer's patients sustain the memory functions for a short time, but they are unable to stop.....read the rest of the article

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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Top Valentine Gifts for Those With Dementia

Healthnews-stat.com

Valentine’s Day is the perfect chance to give gifts that are not only enjoyable but also beneficial to a person with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. These valentine presents keep on giving long after Valentine's Day is gone

Over 5.1 million Americans are living with dementia. Is one of them someone you know or work with? Get him/her or anyone with Alzheimer's disease a Valentine's Day gift that will keep on giving long after the holiday is gone.

First on the list of gifts is a book by Susan Berg called Adorable Photographs of Our Baby -- Meaningful, Mind-Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones and Involved Professionals, This book features baby photographs that seniors with dementia love. This book shares a plethora of ideas and resources for you.

Another gift dementia persons will fancy is a......read the whole story

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Brain scan may reveal risk for Alzheimer's disease

CNNhealth.com
Key structural changes have been identified in the brain images of some patients with mild cognitive impairment which could help determine who's at greatest risk for developing Alzheimer's disease
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, studied MRI scans of 84 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 175 patients with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, and 139 images of healthy brains.

"Our initial goal was to locate similarities in the patients with Alzheimer's disease to those with MCI, in the hopes of finding a method to predict [MCI patients'] likelihood of developing the disease," said lead study author Linda McEvoy, assistant project scientist at UCSD's department of radiology.

Neuroimaging results for the patients with Alzheimer's disease were.....read the whole article

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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Diet could cut risk of dementia

By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY
A new study suggests a diet laden with fish, olive oil, veggies and other foods common in Mediterranean-style cuisine may help ward off mild cognitive impairment, sometimes called borderline dementia. The study also suggests this diet reduces the chance of transitioning from mild cognitive decline to Alzheimer's disease.
"We know from previous research that a healthy diet like this is....read the whole article

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Sunday, February 8, 2009

Employers to be trained to recognize early symptoms of dementia

What do you think about this?
Do you think it will do more good than harm?
TOPNEWS
you can use
Submitted by Amit Pathania on Sat, 02/07/2009 - 20:20 Health TNM United Kingdom
Around 700,000 people in Britain suffer from the degenerative brain condition with the number expected to double over the next 30 years.

According to national dementia strategy, launched this week employers will help government in its fight against degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Under new strategy around....read the whole post

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Apple Juice Can Delay Onset Of Alzheimer's Disease, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily(Science News) — A growing body of evidence demonstrates that we can take steps to delay age-related cognitive decline, including in some cases that which accompanies Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Thomas B. Shea, PhD, of the Center for Cellular Neurobiology; Neurodegeneration Research University of Massachusetts, Lowell and his research team have carried out a number of laboratory studies demonstrating that drinking apple juice helped mice perform better than normal in maze trials, and prevented the decline in performance that was otherwise observed as these mice aged.

In the most recent study Shea and his team demonstrated that mice receiving the human equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice per day for......read the whole story

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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Make a Difference

Alzheimer's Policy Forum

We are looking for at least one person from every U.S. congressional district to come to Washington to help make a difference. Come to the Public Policy Forum and tell our legislators what you already know: Alzheimer's disease has to become a national priority TODAY.


If you're making the trip, why not do it at a discount? Take action and register today for significant savings. Hurry – the early-bird registration ends tomorrow, Feb. 6! click here for more info

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Susan Berg, an aQuire Training Solutions Provider

aQuire Training Solutions announces that Susan Berg is now a provider of EasyCEUs an online program for administators, social workers and nurses. This site provides these professionals with an easy way to get CEUs in the privacy of their own homes.

aQuire Training Solutions was founded by senior care owners and operators. It is a part of the Institute for Senior Living Education (ISLE-Ed), which has built a portfolio of senior care educational resources.

These continuing education course units for administrators, nurses and social workers, give users the advantage of learning when and where it is convenient for them. All courses are nationally accredited through a variety of licensing boards. For more information click here
easyCEUs

There are units on Alzheimer's disease and dementia as well as other topics

Welcome Susan


For more dementia information, click here

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Insulin is a possible new treatment for Alzheimer's

Eurekalert

EVANSTON, Ill. --- A Northwestern University-led research team reports that insulin, by shielding memory-forming synapses from harm, may slow or prevent the damage and memory loss caused by toxic proteins in Alzheimer's disease.

The findings, which provide additional new evidence that Alzheimer's could be due to a novel third form of diabetes, will be published online the week of Feb. 2 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

In a study of neurons taken from the hippocampus, one of the brain's crucial memory centers, the scientists treated cells with insulin and the insulin-sensitizing drug rosiglitazone, which has been used to treat type 2 diabetes. (Isolated hippocampal cells are used by scientists to study memory chemistry; the cells are susceptible to damage caused by ADDLs, toxic proteins that build up in persons with Alzheimer's disease.)

The researchers discovered that...read the whole story

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Sunday, February 1, 2009

Dementia: One Moment at a Time

Here is a beautiful piece which will help you understand dementia better. it is on
mySteinbach.ca
by Larry Hirst

Melony is a health care aid and works in one of the nursing homes in our district. One day, after helping one of the resident’s who is living with dementia get ready for the day the resident looked at her with grateful eyes and said, “I hope you are always my girl.” Melony took this to mean that the resident hoped that she would always be there to help her. Melony wisely responded with a big smile, “I probably won’t always be your girl, but I’m your girl today.” The resident smiled back, the conversation was over but in that simple transaction two people connected in a meaningful and uplifting way.

Many people, when they hear the word dementia or Alzheimer’s, think that the possibility of human connection and all that entails is over. This can become the sad reality in the late stages of the disease, but it is not true in the stages leading up to that last stage when the person becomes locked out of the world in which they live. If I may, let me share one of the things that I have learned over the past eight years as I have worked among people who struggles in the various stages of the diseases grouped under the heading of dementia.

Live in the moment, one moment at a time. As I have provided care to folks suffering with various kinds of dementia, I have learned to live with....read the whole post
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