Culprit in Alzheimer's Disease Identified

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Results of a recent study may indicate that a protein superstructure called amyloid beta what is responsible for the damage in the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease.

Scientists doing research at the University of California have seen that amyloid beta stops an anti-oxidant protein in the brain.They have found a way to protect that protein, and maybe even others, from harmful effects of amyloid.

"Amyloid seems to cause damage to cells. We have reported in a very detailed way one potential interaction of how amyloid can cause disease, and we found a way to stop it," said Jerry Yang.

The study of the reseachers focused on catalase-an enzyme that absorbs excess oxidants. Catalase normally helps to prevent the kind of damage seen in the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease. Work done before had found catalase proteins deposited within the amyloid plaques.

Lila Habib, the first author of the report, added amyloid to cultured neural cells and looked at its effects.

"We were able to determine that......Read all of: Culprit In Alzheimer's Disease Identified

How Beet Juice Prevents Dementia

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Drinking beet juice can enhance blood blow to the brain in aging adults according to researchers doing a new study..This has been demonstated for the first time and could hold increased potential for fighting the progression of dementia.




"There have been several very high-profile studies showing that drinking beet juice can lower blood pressure, but we wanted to show that drinking beet juice also increases perfusion, or blood flow, to the brain," said Daniel Kim-Shapiro. "There are areas in the brain that become poorly perfused as you age, and that's believed to be associated with dementia and poor cognition."



The concentrations of nitrates found in beets is high.,High nitates are in celery, cabbage and other leafy green vegetables like some lettuce and spinach. When you eat high-nitrate foods, good bacteria in your mouth turn nitrate into nitrite. Researchers have discovered that nitrites can assist in opening up the blood vessels in your body. This increases ....Read all of How Beet Juice Prevents Dementia

Communication tips for those with dementia

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Anna Ortegara, RN, MS, Director, Residential Care Services, Rush Alzheimers Disease Center, Chicago

I had the opportunity to hear her speak on the care of Alzheimers patients. Knowledgeable, articulate- EXCELLENT. This is her article on Communication

Challenges on Communications

• Since persons with dementia may have limited attention spans, they may find it difficult to follow long conversations
• Persons with dementia may attempt to describe an object that they cannot name or create a word to describe the object
• Since person with dementia are only able to focus on one thought at a time, multiple step instructions may lead to confusion
• Short term memory problems often lead persons with dementia to lose their train of thought or to repeat thoughts again and again. They may quickly forget what the did understand a the beginning of the conversation
• Background distractions such as television, noise or nearby conversations can compete for attention and impair conversations and communication
• Persons with dementia usually need much more time that the average person to respond to a question. Staff and family caregivers must be patients, allowing these people enough time to process questions and formulate responses
• Communication challenges and the resulting frustrations may cause many of the difficult behaviors that commonly occur in persons with dementia
• Persons with dementia may have additional hearing or visions difficulty that impair their communication ability.

Communication: Focusing on Abilities

• People who suffer with dementia are individuals, with individual needs and wants. Furthermore, the disease progression associated with dementia occurs at different rates for different people. The staff, and family caregivers must be flexible with their communication techniques, adapting their strategies to reflect each persons changing cognitive levels and needs.
• In order to improve communication with persons who have dementia, staff and family caregivers must become creative listeners, studying both verbal and nonverbal communications
• Staff and family caregivers must be creative, and adapt communication strategies to meet each persons unique needs
• Persons with dementia will often communicate to family and staff through their behaviors and expressions of emotion.

Communication Strategies: Helping the Person with Dementia Communicate

• Self expression is vital to a person well being. Make every effort to show interest in what the person with dementia is communicating or attempting to communicate
• Never interrupt a person who has dementia when he or she is trying to communicate an idea because this distraction may cause them to lose their train of thought. It may be helpful to supply a word that the person with dementia is struggling to find
• Eye contact and touch are excellent methods to let person know their thoughts are being heard.
• Never contradict or argue with a person with dementia because this may lead to a catastrophic reaction such as yelling, crying or striking out. Staff must be sensitive to the limited understand and comprehension of the person
• Look a the emotional meanings and subtexts behind statements made by person with dementia. As an example, persons waiting for their mothers are most likely feeling lonely, insecure and fearful

Communication Strategies: Helping the Person with Dementia Understand You

• Because it is critical to get a person with dementia attention before saying anything to them, staff and family caregivers should begin a conversation by making eye contact. Next it is important to identify yourself and call the resident by name.
• Staff and family caregivers need to speak slowly and clearly, and in a low pitched voice, while maintaining an open, calm and friendly communication manner
• It is important to remember to break down tasks into clear and simple tasks.
• Staff and family caregivers must also be aware of what words are familiar to the person and remember to use them often. Using words from a persons native language can be extremely helpful in communication efforts
• When communication with a person who has dementia, avoid open ended questions. Offer a yes or no question or a choice between no more than two items
• If a person with dementia does not understand the question, repeat it or rephrase it.
• Persons with dementia need more time than the average person to process a question and may require extra time and patience to respond
• Most importantly, simple expressions of caring communicate to any person that they are loved and appreciated. A smile or a hug speaks volumes to a person with dementia.

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Allvoices

Two Human Ecology professors are using custom-built furniture and digital photos to help families connect with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer's and other brain diseases.
The ideas arose because of their inability to communicate with their parents who have dementia,
Paul Eshelman and Franklin Becker are professors of design and environmental analysis (DEA). With a team of 10 students, they constructed a "conversation corner" which consisted of a padded, high-backed bench to help nursing home residents and their families block out surrounding distractions during visits. They also designed a portable, wood-finished stand on which dementia patients can view digital pictures that evoke happy memories. Finally, the research team taught family members how to interact "in the moment" and overcome communication lapses associated with short-term memory loss.
In initial studies of the Family Visit Program over the past three years, supported by $75,000 in federal Hatch funds, the researchers have seen read all of....

How to succeed in dementia communication

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Allvoices

According to new visual perception research from a team at Boston University, using brightly colored tableware helps those with severe dementia to eat better because they have diminished sensitivity to visual contrast.. With bright "frames" for the food and beverage in front of them, those in the study increase d their food and beverage intake by 25 percent or more.

Appearing in a recent issue of the journal Clinical Nutrition, the study's findings could lead to great improvements in the nutritional welfare of individuals with advanced dementia.

The team, led by Tracy Dunne, a former postdoctoral fellow at BU's Gerontology Center and at the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC) of the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., included Alice Cronin-Golomb, a professor in BU's Department of Psychology; Sandra Neargarder, an assistant professor of psychology at Bridgewater (Mass.) State College and BU research assistant; and, Patsy Cipolloni, an assistant research professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University Medical Center.

Although 40 percent of individuals with severe dementia show a health-damaging degree of weight loss, reasons for this drop in weight have not
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How to Get Those with Advanced Dementia to Eat

$2.6 Million To Develop Alzheimer's Treatment Using Umbilical Cord Blood Cells

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Allvoices

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a three-year, $2.6-million grant to the University of South Florida and Tampa-based biotechnology company Saneron-CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., to establish dosing and safety guidelines for transplanting human umbilical cord blood cells (HUBC) into animal models of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers hope to use the pre-clinical data to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to carry out clinical trials with patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

"Our immediate goal is to move our beneficial findings with cord blood cells into clinical trials for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease," said the grant's principal investigator Dr. Jun Tan, a USF neuroscientist and professor of psychiatry.

The NIH Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer grant is based on the success of an ongoing research partnership between USF and Saneron aimed at determining the therapeutic benefits HUBCs offer when transplanted into animal models of a variety of neurological diseases, including Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), Alzheimer's disease and stroke.

"Our next stage of research is

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Algal DHA Improved Memory and Learning in Healthy Adults Age 55 and Older

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Allvoices

The Memory Improvement with Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) Study (MIDAS) published online in March 2010 and in the November print issue of Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association showed that algal DHA improved memory function in healthy aging adults, by giving them memory skills of someone three years younger..
MIDAS is the first large, randomized and placebo-controlled study demonstrating the benefits of algal DHA in maintaining and improving brain health in older adults. The goal of MIDAS was to evaluate the effects of algal DHA on cognitive outcomes in healthy elderly people with a mild memory complaint. The study was funded by Martek Biosciences.
MIDAS found that healthy people over age 55 with memory complaints who took 900 mg algal DHA capsules for six months had almost double the reduction in errors on a test that measures learning and memory performance versus those who took a placebo,. The DHA was tolerated well and the people taking the DHA also had a lower heart rate, providing a benefit to their heart.
Another study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), conducted by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) group, found that treatment with DHA did not show statistically significant benefit in cognitive function over placebo in a population that already had an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and was also receiving concomitant prescription therapy. However, the study authors noted that intervention with DHA might have been effective if initiated earlier in the course of the disease in patients who do not have overt dementia. An editorial published in JAMA accompanying the study noted the same, stating that effective treatment strategies to prevent progression of Alzheimer's disease will likely need to be initiated earlier and that the treatment of mild to mo derate AD may be "too late."
Of great interest, the ADCS study demonstrated a significantly

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Strategies to support dementia veterans this Veteran's Day

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PRLog

Dementia,including Alzheimer disease, affects about 1 in 13 seniors,many of them veterans. As you remember our war heroes on Veteran's Day,think about what you can do for them.They did so much for us



PRLog (Press Release) – Nov 03, 2008 – Veterans who suffer from various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer disease, often have very specific care needs. It is important that these veterans are cared for by people who understand their condition and have the appropriate instruction and skills.

Therefore encourage family members of veterans to gain the training they need to care for their loved one with dementia.

All people, including those with memory loss, need human contact. They need to be hugged. They need to hear your voice. They may not know you but as long as you know who they are, that's all that matters.

Talk to them about their service to our country. Often they will share stories with you because their time in the service made a huge impression on them

Tell them how........read all of support dementia veterans this Veteran's Day

For those in nursing homes and other institutions, make sure veterans with dementia are visited often.

Is Omega 3 Effective in Treating Alzheimer's Disease?

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Digital Journal

Omega-3 has been promoted as a brain boosting drug for memory even for people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. The latest government funded study shows different results.


However, as reported in the Washington Post,

Omega 3 did not slow mental and physical decline in older patients with Alzheimer's disease. This was a huge disappointment in a multimillion-dollar government-funded study.

"We had high hopes that we'd see some 

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Big Pharma looking for cure for Alzheimer's

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Digital Journal


Nearly 100 drugs are in the clinical trial phase or under federal review for use in treating Alzheimer's disease or related dementias, pharmaceutical industry analysts report.

UPI.com reports American pharmaceutical companies are focusing in on 98 new drugs for dementia, mostly Alzheimer's disease, a report released Monday by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry's main lobbyist, BusinesWire.com reported.

PhRMA said that the medications are either in clinical trials or are being reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, This work shows a major commitment to Alzheimer's disease, since each new drug costs, on average

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Is There Another Cause of Alzheimer's Disease?

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Digital Journal

Scientists doing research at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal have uncovered one of the root causes of Alzheimer's disease.
This information has raised the hopes of having a drug to slow down or cure or the onset of Alzheimer's disease, a devastating neurodegenerative disorder; as reported in the Montreal Gazette
A neuroscientist named Andrea LeBlanc and other scientists working with her have found that an enzyme in the brain that normally plays a role in inflammation will in certain individuals start Alzheimer's disease process. The enzyme is called Caspase-6. It causes an over-production of amyloid beta plaques that clog up the brains of Alzheimer disease victims thus impairing their memories and cognitive abilities.
LeBlanc thinks that an "estrogen-type" drug might be able to stop Caspase-6. This would effectively treat Alzheimer's disease. Right now, the research is in the early stage, It will take at least 10 years to come up with a potential drug.
"If we could slow the progression of the disease for a few years, we would win a big part of the battle," Leblanc said. "What we want to do is keep people cognitively intact for as long as possible."
Until this time, neuroscientists have focused on the "amyloid theory" as the root cause of Alzheimer's disease. However, Leblanc developed another theory: what if the amyloid plaques were not


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