“Steps to Prevent Dementia May Mean Taking Actual Steps” – The New York Times
“Brain-training apps can’t match the several ways that exercise benefits the mind, research shows.”
by Austin Frakt
“To ward off age-related cognitive decline, you may be tempted to turn to brain training apps. Last year, consumers spent nearly $2 billion on them, some of which claim to improve cognitive skills.
“Evidence suggests you’d be better off spending more time exercising and less time staring at your phone.
“This year the World Health Organization released evidence-based guidelines on reducing risks of cognitive decline and dementia. Although it pointed to some systematic reviews that reported positive cognitive effects of brain training, the W.H.O. judged the studies to be of low quality. Among the studies’ limitations is that they measure only short-term effects and in areas targeted by the training.”
Continue reading this article at The New York Times, click here.
“‘Please know you’re not alone’: For dementia caregivers, a place to share with strangers — and be honest” – STAT
Hyacinth Empinado/STAT
“Barbara Metcalf and Mary Smallwood live 826 miles apart. They’ve never met in person. If not for a chance interaction on Facebook, they would have stayed strangers. But for months, the two women talked nearly every day, swapping stories and venting about their husbands, who both have dementia.
“Their husbands’ symptoms have manifested in particularly difficult, deeply isolating ways. They blamed their wives for their conditions. They blamed their wives for losing their jobs. They blamed their wives because they couldn’t drive anymore. They accused them of having affairs with the mailman or stealing their money. They urinated all over their houses, leaving the women cleaning for hours.
“’It was a constant battle of trying to keep him clean, keep him from having a UTI, keep his dignity, explain to him why it was all happening so he could understand it,’ Metcalf said.”
A link? “Gum infection linked to Alzheimer’s disease, new study suggests” – USA Today
Could Alzheimer’s disease be caused by a gum infection?
by Ashley May
“Alzheimer’s disease could be caused by a gum infection, according to a new study.
“The study, published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, suggests the bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis that destroys gum tissue in the mouth is linked to dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“Researchers observed the bacteria in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. They also conducted tests on mice that showed the gum infection led to an increased production of amyloid beta, a part of the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.” Click here to continue reading this article at USA Today.
Another article from 2018, “How Gum Disease Could Lead to the Development of Alzheimer’s,” suggests the same conclusion.
“Study finds test of protein levels in the eye a potential predictor of (future) Alzheimer’s disease” – Science Daily
“Low levels of amyloid-beta and tau proteins, biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease, in eye fluid were significantly associated with low cognitive scores, according to a new study. These findings indicate that proteins in the eye may be a potential source for an accessible, cost-effective test to predict future Alzheimer’s disease.”
Alzheimer’s definition (stock image). – Credit: © Feng Yu / Fotolia
“Low levels of amyloid-β and tau proteins, biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in eye fluid were significantly associated with low cognitive scores, according to a new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Led by researchers at Boston Medical Center, the study is the first to connect these known AD protein biomarkers in the eye to mental status. These findings indicate that proteins in the eye may be a potential source for an accessible, cost-effective test to predict future Alzheimer’s disease.
“Diagnosing and starting treatment for AD before symptoms begin is key to managing the disease, because by the time symptoms appear it is often too late for current treatments to have any meaningful effect. Abnormal amounts of amyloid-β and tau proteins are biomarkers of AD, and deposits of amyloid proteins in the brain begin many years prior to symptoms of the disease. Previous research has shown an association between low levels of amyloid-β and tau proteins found in the cerebrospinal fluid obtained by lumbar puncture tests and preclinical AD, when pathological changes of AD present in the brain, but before the onset of clinical symptoms. However, lumbar puncture tests are expensive and inconvenient for many patients to undergo.”
Read this article in full at Science Daily, click here.
“Time for a Manhattan Project on Alzheimer’s” – The Conversation
by Marc Diamond
“Imagine if Alzheimer’s was treated like other common diseases. Instead of worrying about the prospect of slowly losing your memory, you might get a series of shots during middle age to prevent the onset of this neurological nightmare, just as we do to reduce the risk of flu. Or you could take a daily pill as many do to control their cholesterol or blood pressure.
In Alzheimer’s, toxic clumps of protein kill brain cells which shrinks the size of the brain as the disease progresses. BlueRingMedia/Shutterstock.com
“That may sound improbable, given the long string of Alzheimer’s drugs that have failed to work in clinical trials, but I remain optimistic. As a physician-scientist leading research into the causes of neurodegenerative diseases, I believe that we are making significant progress on uncovering the roots of Alzheimer’s.
“Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease that has stymied researchers for years. The disease develops when two proteins – A-beta and tau – accumulate in the brain. A-beta builds up outside of nerve cells, and tau inside them. Decades of study suggests that A-beta somehow leads to the accumulation of tau, which is what causes nerve cells to die. This may explain why early treatments focusing exclusively on A-beta failed. These ideas have led to new diagnostic criteria that take into account these two proteins to make the definitive diagnosis.”
Continue reading this article, click here.
“Assisted Living’s Breakneck Growth Leaves Safety Of Dementia Patients Behind” – Kaiser Health News
“Stephanie Weaver holds a photo of her grandmother, Bonnie Walker. Weaver is suing Brookdale Charleston for emotional distress following Walker’s death in a pond behind the assisted living facility in 2016.” – (LEIGH WEBBER FOR KHN)
by Jordan Rau
“They found Bonnie Walker’s body floating in a pond behind her assisted living facility in South Carolina. There were puncture wounds on her ear, her temple, her jaw and her cheeks.
“Her right forearm and her pacemaker were inside one of the alligators that lived in the pond.
“Like 4 in 10 residents in assisted living facilities, Walker, 90, had dementia. Shortly after midnight one day in July 2016, she slipped out of her facility, Brookdale Charleston, as she had done a few days before. This time, no one noticed her missing for seven hours.
“‘No one should have to pass away that way.’”
Read this Kaiser Health News article in its entirety, click here.
“I Would Have Driven Her Anywhere | Caring for a mother who suffers from dementia was really hard. I wish I could do it again.” – The New York Times
Brian Rea
by Melanie Bishop
“When my mother was booted from an assisted living facility in North Carolina for being ‘too high maintenance,’ my husband, Ted, and I agreed to have her live near us in Prescott, Ariz.
“She had spent seven years of dementia in assisted-living facilities, first near my brother in Austin, Tex., and then near my two sisters in Asheville, N.C. It was our turn. My mother never liked any of these facilities, but she disliked the one here most of all. Sometimes, she disliked me.
“One of the few things she did like about Prescott was being reunited with her old car, a 1992 Honda Accord she had sold to me years before, shortly after my father had died.”
“The Honda connected her to her life before dementia … “
