Alzheimer's Care Rescue Club

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Hill Country Consultants Inc.
Brian Willie

Estate and Life Planning: Critical Steps To Take Now. This over 1 hour audio is the first of 6 modules in my hugely popular (and sold out) "Ultimate Alzheimer's Care Rescue Program" training series. You get the entire audio recording plus full written transcripts. You'll learn everything you need to know now including how to avoid expensive guardianships when your loved one loses capacity PLUS 3 critical documents everyone must have and MUCH more! I'll give you dozens of things you can put to use today, but this one tip on guardianships alone could save you $5,000-10,000 in attorney fees.

One of my most popular audio interviews with a top nursing home and assisted living expert, Pat Dismukes "Secrets of Finding The Top Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities." Includes full written transcripts of this nearly 60 minute interview with Pat!

My "Coping Caregiver Video Series" Get instant access to 3 "Coping Caregiver" videos. You'll learn "How to Cope With Elderly Parents Moving In," plus "The Job Description of the Hospice Worker" and "Coping With Negative Emotions As Caregivers."


My crticial series "Powerful Ways To Sharpen Your Memory." You'll learn how to dramatically increase your memory. This is one of the keys to warding off Alzheimer's.
These training programs are jam-packed with content, and best of all it's the type of information that you can apply in just a short time and start seeing real results!

Because as you'll soon see, when you go through one of my training programs you enter...

"The No Theory Zone"

What do I mean by "The No Theory Zone"?

Well it's simple. A lot of training programs talk about stuff that used to work (or worse) should work (but maybe doesn't).

My tips, tricks and trainings however, are backed up by....... read all about Alzheimer's Care Rescue Club

Middle-age smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes raise dementia risk

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d

McKnights

Those who smoke, or suffer from hypertension or diabetes during their middle-age years have a higher risk of developing dementia later, according to a new study.

Current smokers were 70% more likely than those who had never smoked to develop dementia. People with high blood pressure were 60% more likely than those without high blood pressure to develop dementia. People with diabetes were more than twice as likely as those without diabetes to experience cognitive impairment, the study found. Investigators studied more than 11,000 people who were part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Participants were aged 46 to 70 years. Patients were followed up for more than a decade to see how many would later develop dementia.

Overall, blacks had a......read all of raising dementia risk

Specialist training is key in dementia care

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Healthcare Republic

For years, there has been a lack of awareness and understanding about dementia. It is incorrectly associated with mental illness, rendering it taboo.
This is despite the fact that more than 700,000 people in the UK are currently living with dementia, and living with it for an average of 10 years. By 2020, the number is expected to reach a million and these people will require varying degrees of care. It is a complex disease that affects different people in different ways.

Fortunately, last February's publication of the national dementia strategy, combined with high-profile figures like TV presenter John Suchet speaking out about caring for loved ones with dementia, has opened up discussion.

The national strategy aims to improve the quality of dementia care; this requires specialist training for all those involved in caring for dementia patients. For example, it is important for individual care staff to learn about a patient's background; preferences; tastes; and fears to enable personalised and effective interactions. This will enable them to prevent or deflect behaviour that challenges others, creating a safe, familiar and engaging environment.

Staff should understand that a......read all of Specialist training is key in dementia care

High Blood Pressure Linked to Memory Loss in Those 45 and Older

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Bloomberg.com

By Meg Tirrell

High blood pressure may contribute to memory loss and other declines in brain function in people 45 and older, according to a study. The higher the reading, the more likely the individuals were to show impairment.

With each 10-point increase in diastolic blood pressure, the odds of cognitive difficulties grew by 7 percent, according to the report published today in the journal Neurology. This measurement is the force exerted on arteries when the heart is at rest.

The study builds on previous research probing the connection between blood pressure and brain function. The research thus far has yielded conflicting results, said Georgios Tsivgoulis, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and a lead study author, in an e-mail today. The study is noteworthy because it analyzed more than 19,000 participants, Maria C. Carrillo, senior director of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, said today in a telephone interview.

“It lends further support to what we had already really thought was the case,” said Carrillo. “That is that high blood pressure, and certainly cerebrovascular diseases, do contribute to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.”

When diastolic blood pressure rises, it can........read all of High Blood Pressure Linked to Memory Loss

Many docs off mark on off-label scripts

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Chicago Sun Times

HEALTH | 45% in study wrong about FDA's approval

BY MONIFA THOMAS Health Reporter/mjthomas@suntimes.com

Doctors often prescribe drugs "off-label" to treat conditions for which they're not approved.

But a new study suggests that some off-label prescribing may be driven by doctors' mistaken belief that certain drugs are actually approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for such use.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia asked 1,200 psychiatrists and primary care doctors to identify whether 14 common drugs were approved by the FDA for treatment of various illnesses.

The average doctor was wrong about the FDA approval status of 45 percent of the drugs he or she was asked about, according to the study, published in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

One example was the schizophrenia drug quetiapine. Nearly one in five doctors who said they prescribed the drug for dementia erroneously believed that it was FDA-approved for this purpose. In fact, at the time of the study, the FDA had issued a "black box" warning about an increased risk of death in elderly dementia patients who used quetiapine.

Study co-author Dr. G. Caleb Alexander said the results suggest that doctors need to have a better understanding of the science supporting certain off-label drug uses.

"Our findings highlight an urgent need for.....read more about docs off mark on off-label scripts

Reading and crosswords help ward off dementia

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24 Medica

Written by Jessica Smith

Most of us worry about losing our memorymentia act and our general mental sharpness as we age – but there’s plenty we can be doing right now to slow the decline.
Researchers have found that social activities that engage the brain – such as reading, writing, doing crossword puzzles, playing card and board games, and having group discussions – all help to keep us sharp.

We can even start these activities late in life, and still delay the onset of memory loss and dementia, as researchers discovered when they tested a group of 488 people aged between 75 and 85 years, who were still mentally sharp.

During the five years of the study, 101 of the group developed dementia – but researchers discovered that those who engaged their brain with one or more of the social activities were able to delay the time their mental functions began to deteriorate.

Of those who developed dementia, most took..... read more about Reading and crosswords help ward off dementia

Lie-ins may be an early sign of dementia research suggests

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Telegraph.co.uk

Sleeping late in the mornings or napping in the afternoons doubles the chances of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the elderly are warned.

By Pat Hagan

Research has found that people aged over 65 who sleep more than eight or nine hours a night may be twice as likely to develop the deadly condition as those getting six to eight hours.

Napping during the day may also have the same effect.

The reason remains unclear but researchers believe excessive sleep could be an early sign of the disease. It's also possible that staying in bed is a sign of depression, a known risk factor for dementia in the elderly.

Now researchers are urging doctors to be on the lookout for long sleep as a warning that a patient is at risk.

Alzheimer's affects an estimated 24 million people worldwide and the number is expected to grow as the population lives longer.

Most die within ten years of being diagnosed, and the cost of caring for victims is more than stroke, heart disease and cancer put together.

The disease destroys chemical messengers within the brain and starts with the build-up of deposits – called plaques and tangles – that can disrupt normal messaging systems by causing inflammation.

The cause remains........read all of early sign of dementia

Fresh fish, fruits and vegetables make eating the Mediterranean way a healthy

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Stars ans Stripes

By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes

NAPLES — The benefits of the Mediterranean diet are in the news again, this time for helping ward off dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

A recently published article in the Journal of the American Medical Association detailed results from a study in which senior citizens living in New York were monitored between 1992 and 2006 for adherence to a Mediterranean diet and physical activity.

The study showed regular eating of a Mediterranean-type diet was related to reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It also correlated higher levels of physical activity to lower risk of the disease, independent of diet.

That may be welcome news for those who might not be interested in upping their activity level, but are willing to make a few changes when it comes to meal time.

So what is the Mediterranean diet?

There isn’t one specific regimen that makes up this particular eating lifestyle. Rather, it is regular consumption of certain foods that are readily available and prepared in a fashion common throughout the Mediterranean region.

According to the American Heart Association, the diet includes:

more about the Mediterranean way

dementia tips

More Evidence That Fish Is Brain Food

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ABC News- Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults in developing countries who regularly eat fish seem to have a lower risk of dementia, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 15,000 older adults living in China, India or one of five Latin American countries, the odds of having dementia generally declined as fish consumption rose.

For each increase in participants' reported fish intake -- from never, to some days of the week, to most or all days of the week -- the prevalence of dementia dipped by 19 percent.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, mirror evidence from some studies in developed nations.

The findings also suggest that the fish-dementia link does not simply reflect the benefits of a generally higher-quality diet. The study found that adults who got the most meat in their diets tended to have a somewhat higher prevalence of dementia than those who never ate meat.

The findings are based on a one-time survey and do not prove cause-and- effect, note the researchers, led by Dr. Emiliano Albanese of King's College London in the UK.


"More substantive evidence," they write, will come from the next phase of the research, which is following these older adults over time to see whether fish intake is related to the risk of developing dementia in the future.

If fish does protect the aging brain, researchers believe that the benefits probably come from the omega-3 fatty acids found most abundantly in oily fish like salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna.

Lab studies show that omega-3 fats have a number of properties that could help stave off dementia -- including actions that protect nerve cells, limit inflammation and help prevent the build-up of the amyloid proteins seen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

These latest findings are based on.......read all of More Evidence That Fish Is Brain Food

Patients can cope with learning their Alzheimer's risks

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AMNews.com

Genetic testing results can alarm patients, but distress levels are not clinically significant, a new study says.
By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Posted Aug. 7.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alzheimer's disease is unpreventable and largely untreatable. Though genetic testing can tell patients if they have an elevated risk of developing the condition, the expert consensus has been that disclosing such information would distress patients while giving them no medical benefit.

That consensus may be wrong, according to a study in the July 16 New England Journal of Medicine (content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/361/3/245/).

More than 160 patients whose parents had Alzheimer's disease were offered genotyping results for apolipoprotein E, or APOE, which is associated with increased susceptibility to the disease. There was no significant difference in pre- and post-test disclosure measures of anxiety, depression or distress up to one year, the study found.

The authors said the data "support the psychological safety of disclosing data regarding genetic-counseling protocols to screened adult children of patients with Alzheimer's disease who request such information."

The findings could change medical professionals' minds about whether patients can handle these potentially life-changing test results, said Angela M. Trepanier, immediate past president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. She was not involved in the study.

"The study takes this test off the taboo list and makes it something to....read all of Learn Alzheimer's risks,

Testing Gene Therapy to Improve Brain Function in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

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UC San Diego Medical Center


Researchers at the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of California San Diego are about to launch a Phase 2 clinical trial to test a gene therapy treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) called CERE-110. Previously, CERE-110 was carefully studied in animals as well as in a small study to assess safety in humans. These studies showed that CERE-110 can safely induce long-term production of a natural brain cell-survival molecule called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) in the brains of AD patients.

Researchers at 12 U.S. sites, including the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of California San Diego are now seeking 50 study participants with mild to moderate AD for the Phase 2 clinical study. The experimental treatment utilizes viral-based gene transfer. Brain cells that receive gene transfer will, in turn, make NGF, a naturally occurring protein that maintains nerve cell function and survival in the brain.

“NGF is known to support the survival and function of the neurons that deteriorate in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Michael Rafii, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences. “These neurons produce a chemical called acetylcholine, which is important in memory and cognitive function. The hope is that restoration of this system’s function may improve memory in Alzheimer’s patients.” AD is a degenerative and ultimately fatal disorder affecting as many as five million Americans. That number is expected to soar to more than 11 million by 2040.

In the trial, a neurosurgeon will inject CERE-110 directly into the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) of the brain, an area where neuron death occurs in AD. The brain cells contained in this nucleus, located deep within the brain, form the cholinergic system. The cholinergic system uses acetylcholine in transmitting nerve impulses involved in memory and cognition, and these cells are known to profoundly degenerate in the course of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers hope that exposing these cells to NGF may preserve function and prevent further cell loss and potentially slow intellectual decline seen in Alzheimer’s patients.

Previous Research

A Phase 1 study was conducted at Rush University in Chicago and the University of California San Diego, where the treatment was found to be generally safe and well-tolerated. The 10 subjects with AD underwent cognitive testing, measures of activities of daily living, and MRI and PET (positron emission tomography) scans. When compared to other severity-matched individuals with AD, researchers observed increases in brain metabolism in several cortical regions of the brain in some of the trial participants at six months and 12 months, suggesting a potential reversal of patterns typically observed in AD. In addition, in follow up ranging from six months to more than four years post-treatment, there have been no side effects thought to be caused by CERE-110.

In previous animal studies, CERE-110....read all of Testing Gene Therapy to Improve Brain Function in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

Midlife cholesterol linked to dementia

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San Francisco Chronicle

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

You might want to think twice about that plate of steak and eggs.

A new study that looked at Kaiser Permanente Northern California members over a four-decade period found that even borderline to moderately high cholesterol levels in your 40s can significantly raise the chances of developing dementia later in life.

The study, published recently in the journal Dementia & Geriatrics Cognitive Disorders, found the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease increased by as much as 66 percent among people with high cholesterol in midlife, a level defined as 240 or higher milligrams per deciliter (1.75 pints) of blood.

For those with just moderately high cholesterol - between 200 and 239 milligrams per deciliter - the risk of developing vascular dementia, the second-most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's, increased by 52 percent.

"The thing that struck us as most surprising was that not only was high cholesterol associated with elevated risk of developing dementia later in life, but also borderline levels of cholesterol," said the study's senior author, Rachel Whitmer, a Kaiser research scientist and epidemiologist. "This is a new piece of the puzzle as we're trying to understand risk factors for dementia."

The Kaiser research, considered the largest and most diverse long-term study to examine the link between cholesterol at midlife and the development of dementia later on, adds a growing body of evidence to link cholesterol and vascular health with the two most common forms of dementia.

Bill Fisher, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Association of Northern California and Northern Nevada, said Kaiser's results were consistent with many studies over the last five or six years that show a link between cardiovascular health and dementia.

"We never say to people, 'You do this and you won't develop Alzheimer's,' because we can't say that," Fisher said, adding that genetic components to the disease, such as an inherited type of protein, can't be changed with diet and exercise.

"But we do say, what's good for the heart is good for your brain. There's a lot of data behind that."

More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, an incurable brain disorder that is the sixth-leading cause of death. Vascular dementia is linked to strokes, but lacks the abnormal brain structures known as plaques and tangles associated with an Alzheimer's diagnosis. This form of dementia is caused by blockages to the brain's blood supply.

The Kaiser study looked at 9,844 men and women who were 40 to 45 years old between 1964 and 1973 when their cholesterol levels were first collected. Of the total participants, 469 were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease between 1994 and 2007 when the members were between 61 and 88 years old, and 127 developed vascular dementia.

The tests did not break down cholesterol to examine the impact of the ratio of "good" to "bad" cholesterol on developing dementia.

Whitmer found the overall results....read all of Midlife cholesterol linked to dementia

Working Overtime May be a Risk for Dementia

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Brain Blogger

By Jennifer Gibson, PharmDcloseJennifer Gibson, PharmD Name: Jennifer Gibson
Site: http://brainblogger.com

Many occupations can make you feel like you are losing your mind, but new evidence suggests that long working hours may actually lead to cognitive decline. Notably, cognitive impairment in midlife is already established as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. A new report from the Whitehall II Study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology finds that long working hours in midlife are associated with a decline of cognitive function, and possibly dementia.

Earlier studies from the Whitehall Study group and related evaluations reported that long working hours are associated with cardiovascular and immunologic disorders, reduced sleep quality and duration, unhealthy lifestyle choices, and overall adverse health outcomes. Data examining the association between work hours and cognitive function is scarce, but the current study attempted to evaluate the link, since risk factors in midlife are important predictors of dementia in late life. For the cross-sectional study of 248 automotive workers in Britain, participants completed numerous tests related to memory and vocabulary, as well as general health, psychological well being, and physical functioning. People who worked more than 55 hours per week had significantly lower scores on vocabulary and reasoning tests at baseline and follow-up 5 years later, compared with those who worked 35 to 40 hours per week. The results were not changed when confounding factors were considered, including age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, income, and health risk factors.

Similar studies have concluded that...read all of Working Overtime May be a Risk for Dementia

What Are the Causes of Senile Dementia?

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eHow

According to the Alzheimer's Association there are approximately 5.3 million people with Alzheimer's disease and related senile dementias in the United States and over 27 million worldwide suffering from these conditions.
The cost of senile dementia care is estimated to be $315.4 billion annually.
There are more than 50 conditions that result in senile dementia. One person can have more than one form of senile dementia.
Discussed here are the more common causes of senile dementia.
Vascular dementia is much less likely to occur in individuals who practice healthy lifestyle habits.

Definition
# Senile dementia is not a specific disease, but rather a group of symptoms that are caused by changes in the functioning of the brain. There are many and varied symptoms that have to do with cognition. Cognition refers to the act of thinking, perceiving, and learning. Cognitive functions that may be affected are decision making, judgment, memory, spatial orientation, thinking, reasoning, and communication.Behavior and personality changes are likely to occur depending on what areas of the brain are affected. Most senile dementias are much more likely to happen in old age.
Alzheimer's Disease
# Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of senile dementia. It accounts for almost half of all cases. It is, at least in part, a genetic disorder. Its hallmark is the formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibratory tangles. As these abnormal proteins increase in number, brain cells are destroyed, and therefore new memories cannot be formed. As the disease progresses, the abnormal proteins spread to more parts of the brain, causing more cell death and more severe memory loss and brain malfunction.
Vascular Dementia
# The second most common cause of senile dementia is vascular dementia. It is also called mullti-infarct dementia. This type accounts for about one third of all dementias. In this dementia, the arteries in the brain harden because of fatty deposits and accumulation of other debris. This in turn causes blockage of blood flow. The cells of the brain do not get the oxygen they need, and they die. Other diseases and conditions ,such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes, can increase the memory loss associated with this dementia.
Very often there is a combination of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
Frontotemporal Lobe Dementias
# It is estimated that frontotemporal lobe dementia accounts for about 10% of all senile dementias. The damage, as the name suggests, is in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. One particular type of this dementia is Pick's Disease. It is causeed by an increased number of Pick Bodies in the brain. These bodies cause cell death. As this and other frontotemporal lobe dementias progress, socially inappropriate behavior increases. Language is lost as more cells in these lobes of the brain die off.
Lewy Body and Parkinson's Dementia
# Lewy body dementia is caused....read all of What Causes Senile Dementia

Work protects against dementia

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BBCTurkish.com

A new study in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry suggests that carrying on working into old age, rather than occupation or education, can help protect against dementia.

The study looked at nearly 400 men who developed Alzheimer's disease. It assessed the time they spent in full-time education, the type of work they did and the point at which they retired.

The researchers detected no link between the onset of dementia and education or occupation. But they found that every extra year at work was associated with a six week delay in Alzheimer's. They say this points to the value of keeping the brain active by working.

They also acknowledge that the nature of retirement is changing, and for some people it may be as intellectually stimulating as working. The Alzheimer's Research Trust, which funded the study, says more people than ever retire later in life to avert financial hardship, but there may be a silver lining: lower dementia risk. However it says much more research is needed in order to understand how to delay or prevent dementia.

Study: Dementia meds up older diabetics' hyperglycemia risk

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USA Today

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay

Older diabetics who take antipsychotic medications have an increased risk of ending up in the hospital with elevated blood glucose levels, or hyperglycemia, researchers say.
More and more seniors are being prescribed these medications for dementia and other conditions, the study authors noted in their report in the July 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

In the study, Dr. Lorraine L. Lipscombe of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences at the University of Toronto and Women's College Research Institute at Women's College Hospital in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues looked at 13,817 diabetic patients who were 66 and older. These patients started taking antipsychotics between April 2002 and March 2006.

The researchers compared these patients' hospitalization rates for hyperglycemia with the rates of patients who had stopped taking antipsychotic medications for more than 180 days.

"Our study indicates that the initiation of antipsychotic therapy represents a critical period during which seniors with diabetes are particularly vulnerable to metabolic decompensation [the failure of the metabolic system to function adequately]," the authors wrote in a news release. "The new use of both atypical [newer] and typical antipsychotic drugs was associated with a significant increase in hospitalizations for hyperglycemia, which appeared independent of baseline diabetes treatment and was strikingly high during the initial period of antipsychotic therapy."

Other studies suggest that the....read more of Dementia meds up older diabetics' hyperglycemia risk

Dementia induced and blocked in Parkinson's fly model

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EurekAlert

Contact: Michael C. Purdy
purdym@wustl.edu
314-286-0122
Washington University School of Medicine


St. Louis,
Parkinson's disease is well-known for impairing movement and causing tremors, but many patients also develop other serious problems, including sleep disturbances and significant losses in cognitive function known as dementia.

Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have modeled Parkinson's-associated dementia for the first time. Scientists showed that a single night of sleep loss in genetically altered fruit flies caused long-lasting disruptions in the flies' cognitive abilities comparable to aspects of Parkinson's-associated dementia. They then blocked this effect by feeding the flies large doses of the spice curcumin.

"Clinical trials of curcumin to reduce risk of Parkinson's disease are a future possibility, but for now we are using the flies to learn how curcumin works," says author James Galvin, M.D., a Washington University associate professor of neurology who treats patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "This should help us find other compounds that can mimic curcumin's protective effects but are more specific."

Galvin and senior author Paul Shaw, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology, publish their results in the journal Sleep on Aug. 1.

Galvin is an expert in cognitive impairments in human Parkinson's disease; Shaw studies sleep and the brain in fruit flies. The researchers decided collaborate based in part on evidence that increased sleep loss in Parkinson's patients can precede or coincide with increased severity in other Parkinsonian symptoms.

More than 74 percent of Parkinson's patients have trouble sleeping, and up to 80 percent of patients 65 and older who have Parkinson's disease for seven years will develop dementia, according to Galvin.

Shaw's lab has linked sleep loss to changes in the dopaminergic system of the brain, the part of the brain that produces the neurotransmitter dopamine and is at the center of the damage caused by Parkinson's.

"In healthy flies, sleep deprivation......read all of Dementia induced and blocked in Parkinson's fly model

White Matter Changes Could Predict Dementia Risk

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redOrbit

Elderly people with no memory or thinking problems are more likely to later develop thinking problems if they have a growing amount of "brain rust," or small areas of brain damage, according to a study published in the July 14, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, researchers followed 49 people age 65 and older who had no memory or thinking problems for an average of 9.5 years. The participants had at least three brain scans and annual tests of thinking skills. During the study, 24 of the participants developed persistent cognitive impairment, or memory problems that are a potential precursor to Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia.

The study found that those who had theread more of White Matter Changes Could Predict Dementia Risk

Alzheimer’s Disease: Women Affected More Often than Men

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Written by Society for Women

Nearly 5.3 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in our country, and more than half of them are women, according to the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md. As the general population continues to age, this number is expected to increase significantly over the next few decades.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of brain disorders that interferes with a person’s ability to carry out daily activities. In AD, areas of the brain change and deteriorate, which causes a decline in cognition and memory functioning. In some patients, the deficits are large enough to get in the way of performing normal, everyday tasks.

There is evidence that AD affects women differently than men. “Many studies of gender differences in cognition have pointed to greater language deficits in women with Alzheimer’s disease as compared to men,” explains Michael S. Rafii, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Memory Disorders Clinic and an attending neurologist at the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer Disease Research Center at the University of California, San Diego.

“Naming and word-recognition skills have been reported to be more adversely affected in female patients with AD than in male patients, and the differences have been shown to be sustained over time.”

Notable sex and gender differences in behavior among Alzheimer patients have been observed as well. “Male patients exhibit greater problems than female patients in wandering, abusiveness and social impropriety, particularly in the more advanced stages of the disorder,” Rafii points out. In fact, major tranquilizers and behavior management programs are used more frequently on male patients.

While there is currently no cure for AD, researchers continue to make progress. More drugs are being studied, and researchers have identified several genes associated with the disease. “Recent work has been focused on identifying the molecule that may be causing AD symptoms,” says Rafii. Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins University “discovered a protein complex in the brain that appears to impair memory.”

Combined with sophisticated imaging techniques, this discovery is enabling scientists to take a clear picture of the protein deposits in the brain. According to Rafii, “This could lead to accurate diagnosis of AD at very early stages. Previously, a definitive diagnosis of the disease could only be made through an autopsy after the patient's death, typically at a very late stage of the illness.”

Diagnosing AD can be tricky, especially because many people are under the assumption that forgetfulness is a normal part of the aging process. But patients with AD suffer from much more than simple memory lapses. Here are a few common signs and symptoms of the disease:

- Persistent forgetfulness or memory loss
- Disorientation
- Problems performing routine tasks
- Inability to express thoughts coherently or finish sentences
- Loss of judgment
- Changes in personality

As in other diseases, early diagnosis is very important for patients with AD. Certain medications have been found to be useful in the earlier stages of the disease, so the sooner the diagnosis is made, the better.