Active mind keeps dementia at bay

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The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Find out about activities that help your mind push off Alzheimer's by as much as 8 years. 

American Academy of Neurology

The Mayo Clinic

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MINNEAPOLIS – People who keep mentally and physically healthy in middle age may help stave off the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the online edition of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. 

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The findings differed for people who are carriers of a gene linked to Alzheimer's, called APOE4, which affects about 20 percent of the population. Those with the gene who had at least 14 years of education and kept mentally active in middle age had lower levels of proteins, called amyloid plaques, that can build up in brain tissue and lead to Alzheimer's disease than those with the gene and a high level of education but who did not keep mentally active in middle age. Among the APOE4 high education individuals, the predicted amyloid levels in a 79-year-old who kept mentally active (67th percentile) would be the same as the predicted amyloid levels in a 74 year-old who did not (33rd percentile). 

"Recent studies have shown conflicting results about the value of physical and mental activity related to the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, and we noticed that levels of education differed in those studies," said study author Prashanthi Vemuri, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "When we looked specifically at the level of lifetime learning, we found that carriers of the APOE4 gene who had higher education and continued to learn through middle age had fewer amyloid deposition on imaging when compared to those who did not continue with intellectual activity in middle age." 

Vemuri said the overall findings for people who do not carry the gene should not discourage people from exercising and taking part in activities such as reading books and magazines, playing games and using computers. "There is substantial evidence that these activities help to delay the onset of memory and thinking problems," Vemuri said. "What we don't know is how this process works." 

For the study, researchers evaluated 393 people without dementia who were part of the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. Of those, 53 had mild cognitive impairment. All were 70 years of age or older. They were divided into two groups, those with more than 14 years of education and those with less. 

Researchers then used MRI and PET scans to look for biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and questionnaires to evaluate weekly intellectual and physical activity in middle age. 

For the group as a whole, education, occupation and mental and physical activity in middle age appeared to have little to no effect on the rates of worsening amyloid plaques, brain glucose metabolism and brain volume. But for APOE4 carriers with high education and continued lifetime learning, there was less amyloid deposition in the brain than those with high education who did not continue to learn. 

"It is possible those who did not continue intellectual activity in middle age did so because they had higher levels of amyloid plaques," said Vemuri. "While there are many limitations with this study, our findings show further study is needed and suggest that differing education levels in other recent studies may explain the conflicting results seen in the research literature." 

REFERENCE:

• Effect of intellectual enrichment on AD biomarker trajectories, Neurology, February 24, 2016

MORE INFORMATION:

• The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
• The American Academy of Neurology, an association of 30,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, concussion, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

Diabetes Drug May Restore Memory In Alzheimer's

Caregivers and healthcare professionals, here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals,

Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two

Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition

Medical News Today

Researchers in Canada have discovered a drug originally intended for the treatment of diabetes may restore memory in brain cells affected by Alzheimer's disease. In tests on animal brain cells, they found that AC253, a diabetes drug that never made it to market, restored memory to levels similar to those of normal cells. Trials could start in five years, should further tests succeed, says the team.

The researchers write about their work in a paper published online in The Journal of Neuroscience on 28 November.

In a statement released on Tuesday, senior author Jack Jhamandas, a researcher with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, says their discovery 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."

Estimates suggest in the next 30 years, 1,125,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Cells of people with Alzheimer's contain amyloid protein, which is found in particularly large amounts in cells from the memory and cognition parts of the brain. It is the presence of this protein that is believed to impair memory.

Last year, Jhamandas and his team showed that AC253 could block the toxic effects of amyloid protein that lead to brain-cell death.

For this latest study, they tested: read all about a Diabetes Drug May Restore Memory In Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease may start in youth

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By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

Alzheimer's disease research has shifted to looking for the earliest signs and symptoms of the disease process. A new study has found evidence of early brain damage in some young people at increased risk for the disease.

Researchers led by Dr. Paul Thompson, a UCLA professor of neurology, conducted brain scans on 398 young, healthy people ages 20 to 30. Those participants who carried a particular gene mutation that is known to raise the risk of Alzheimer's -- linked to the CLU gene -- had unique characteristics in white matter (the bundles of nerve cells) in multiple brain regions, including in some areas known to become damaged in Alzheimer's disease. The findings suggest that changes in myelin, the substance that protects nerve cells, may be a sign of increased risk of developing the disease later in life.

"Alzheimer's has traditionally been considered a disease marked by neuronal cell loss and widespread gray matter atrophy," Thompson said in a news release. "But degeneration of myelin in white matter fiber pathways is more and more being considered a key disease component and another possible pathway to the disease, and this discovery supports that."

People who have this particular mutation in the CLU -- which is common -- aren't doomed to develop Alzheimer's disease, the authors noted. And young people who have these changes in white matter are not cognitively impaired. But knowledge about this genetic risk could be used to help prevent the disease later in life, the authors said.

The study was published online last week in the Journal of Neuroscience.

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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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Muscle Weakness Linked to Alzheimer's Risk in Seniors

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Reason for association unknown, but stroke is one possibility, researchers say

(HealthDay News) -- Elderly people with weak muscles may be at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago followed 970 older adults (average age 80) who didn't have dementia at the start of the study. The participants underwent a number of evaluations, including tests of cognitive function and muscle strength.

During an average 3.6 years of follow-up, 138 (14.2 percent) of the participants developed Alzheimer's disease. Those with the highest levels of muscle strength at the start of the study were 61 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's than those with the weakest muscles, the researchers found.

The link between muscle strength and Alzheimer's remained even after the researchers accounted for other factors, such as body mass index and physical activity levels.

The researchers also found that weak muscles were associated with increased risk of mild cognitive impairment, the earliest sign of cognitive decline.

"Overall, these data show that greater muscle strength is associated with a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment and suggest that a common pathogenesis may underlie loss of muscle strength and cognition in aging," wrote study author Patricia A. Boyle and colleagues.

Although the reason for the association between muscle strength and Alzheimer's risk isn't known, the study authors noted that there are a number of possibilities. Damage to the mitochondria, which produce energy for cells, may contribute to loss of both muscle strength and cognitive function. A second possibility is that decreased strength could be caused by stroke or other central nervous system disorders that also may reveal subclinical Alzheimer's disease, they suggested.

The study appears in the November issue of the journal Archives of Neurology.