"Genetics may predispose some people to both Alzheimer's disease and high levels of blood lipids such as cholesterol, a common feature of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study by an international team of researchers led by scientists at UC San Francisco and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research analyzed genome-wide data from over 1.5 million individuals, making it one of the largest-ever studies of Alzheimer's genetics. The author hope the findings will lead to improved early diagnosis and potentially new preventative strategies for Alzheimer's disease, which currently affects 5.7 million people in the U.S. and has no cure."
Posts tagged as “AD”
The spouses arriving for the Wednesday afternoon caregivers’ class at the Penn Memory Center in Philadelphia had something on their minds even before Alison Lynn, the social worker leading the session, could start the conversation.
A few days before, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had released a letter announcing that she’d been diagnosed with dementia, probably Alzheimer’s disease.
“As this condition has progressed, I am no longer able to participate in public life,” she wrote.
“I want to be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts.”It meant something to Ms. Lynn’s participants that the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court would acknowledge, at 88, that she had the same relentless disease that was claiming their husbands and wives (and that killed Justice O’Connor’s husband, too, in 2009).
"A sub-category of glaucoma is referred to as normal tension glaucoma (NTG) because the intraocular pressure of these patients remains within a normal range, but damage to the optic nerve occurs by some other means. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has become a recent topic of study in relation to NGT, because of their similarities as chronic, progressive conditions. In a new study, researchers compared the incidence rate of Alzheimer’s in patients with normal tension glaucoma to those without NGT in order to help clarify inconsistent findings of similar studies performed in the past. They gathered data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan and analyzed it for patterns between the two conditions over a period of 13 years."
Carol Erzen knows how difficult it is to diagnose and care for someone with dementia. Her mother was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, and, for her family, it took time to figure out what was happening.'With both Alzheimer’s and dementia, it’s not like there is a blood test or a thermometer test that you can do to tell you, ‘Oh, this is clearly what’s happening,’' said Erzen, staff development executive for Merakey Allegheny Valley School in Pittsburgh, which provides homes and services to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 'It’s a series of things that have to be looked at,' she said, 'and a lot of it is very subtle.'"
"Do you sometimes feel completely out of control as if the world has been turned upside down and you can’t find the reset button? Do you fear someone you know is living with the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease without a diagnosis? Has someone close to you recently been diagnosed with some form of dementia? Do you feel sad, isolated or angry as you search for answers to questions you’re not even sure how to ask?"
"It seems that the sands of time are slowly running out on Eli Lilly’s BACE program for treating Alzheimer’s disease. This week during its third quarter conference call, David Ricks, Eli Lilly’s Chief Executive Officer, slid in the fact that the company has scrapped a Phase II clinical trial for N3pG, a humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody, plus BACE in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. Ricks did note that Eli Lilly was still studying N3pG as a monotherapy."
"The caregiving needs for someone living with Alzheimer’s are extensive and increase over time — on average four to eight years following a diagnosis. Many family caregivers juggle competing priorities, becoming stretched thin and stressed. Most could use help. Here in Missouri, there are 316,000 family caregivers. During November – National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month and National Family Caregivers Month – the Alzheimer’s Association recognizes and honors Alzheimer’s caregivers. We applaud these resilient men and women who do so much for those they love in their most difficult times. Caring for a loved one with memory loss can be rewarding and uplifting. It can also be emotionally, physically and financially draining. Caregivers need to take care of themselves..."
"A substance that gives pot its kick appears to reduce the brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease – at least in mice. In mice that had been genetically tweaked to develop symptoms like those of Alzheimer's, animals that received a synthetic form of tetrahydrocannabinol for six weeks performed as well as healthy mice on a memory test, scientists reported Tuesday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. Meanwhile, mice given a placebo instead of THC lost the ability to remember where to find the shallow spot in a pool of water."
"Artificial intelligence can be used to spot Alzheimer’s six years before a patient would normally be diagnosed, a study shows. Doctors used the self-learning computer to detect changes in brain scans too subtle for humans to see. The system was able to identify dementia in 40 patients an average of six years before they were formally diagnosed."
Reducing your risk of Alzheimer’s: what one Greek island shows us copied!
There’s a 50-50 chance a person in America will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease after age 85 – but on a Greek island, the disease is almost non-existent.
Is that because of their genes, or the food they eat, or the air they breathe?
NBC special anchor Maria Shriver goes to an unlikely place, Cleveland, to find some answers.