Alzheimers News & Features

A new study of more than 11,000 patients published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in April finds for the first time that technology can detect biological evidence of brain changes clearly linked to Alzheimer’s.

LATE causes memory loss and problems with thinking and reasoning, but on autopsy, doctors don’t find the Alzheimer’s-linked protein clumps known as plaques and tangles in the brain.

The results “make it clear that amyloid PET imaging can have a major impact on how we diagnose and care for patients with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of cognitive decline," said the study’s lead author.

The researchers said the pattern fits a theory that lower lifetime exposure to estrogen may contribute to dementia. Lab research, for example, suggests that estrogen aids resiliency and repair of brain cells.

The analysis found that dementia was the primary cause for nearly 262,000 deaths in 2017, nearly half from Alzheimer's disease. That's up from about 84,000 deaths attributed to dementia in 2000.

In the end, people who ate their fruits and vegetables were at no lower risk than those who favored sweets and steaks.

The study found that women taking hormone replacement therapy had a 9 percent to 17 percent higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. In women who began taking hormone therapy before age 60, this increased risk was tied to use of HRT for a decade or longer.

As Alzheimer’ progresses, amyloid beta proteins build up in parts of the brain. They clump together to form hardened plaques that disrupt the way the brain functions.

Combinations of drugs that lower blood pressure and/or statins to control high cholesterol did cut the chances of heart problems in people in a new study, but did not appear to have an effect on thinking and memory declines.

People who had a higher education did have greater thinking and memory skills when the study began. But, there was no association between higher education and a slower decline in thinking and memory.

The study found only that a group of dementia patients had different gut microbes from dementia-free adults, one expert noted.

"This type of weather can be hazardous for everyone, but even more so for individuals living with Alzheimer's disease, who may have difficulty noticing temperature and weather changes or knowing who to call for help," said Charles Fuschillo Jr., CEO and president of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Although tight blood pressure control didn’t reduce the risk of full-blown dementia in the study, it did reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment, an early form of the disease.

Researchers studied dead and living patients with diagnosed and suspected Alzheimer's and found bacteria associated with chronic gum disease in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, BBC News reported.

Researchers found that people with the most severe memory declines had the greatest leakage in their brain's blood vessels, regardless of whether the Alzheimer's-related proteins amyloid and tau were present.

A new study indicates that a 'frail brain' might be more susceptible to neurological problems like dementia, a new study has found.

People who were obese typically had a lower volume of gray matter in the brain than their normal-weight counterparts, especially if they carried much of their excess weight around the middle, in a new study. Past research has linked gray matter shrinkage to a heightened risk of future dementia.

Researchers found that people with less slow-wave sleep -- deep sleep that's needed to preserve memories and to wake up feeling refreshed -- had higher levels of the brain protein tau. Elevated tau levels are a possible sign of Alzheimer's disease.

New research has uncovered a clue that suggests that diagnosing the brain-robbing disease may not be the same in black people and white people.

The study, of more than 100,000 older women veterans, spotlights the risk factors stemming from military service that can lead to thinking and memory problems down the road.

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 88, told “friends and fellow Americans” in a letter Tuesday that her doctors diagnosed her with the beginning stages of dementia "some time ago.”

Research has shown that herpes increases Alzheimer's risk in people genetically predisposed to dementia, New data suggest that treating people with antiviral drugs might actually protect them from dementia, scientists say.

Researchers have found that 2.5 hours of walking or other physical activity a week thwarted mental decline tied to an inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease that leads to dementia at an early age.

By 2060, an estimated 13.9 million Americans are expected to have Alzheimer’s disease, equaling nearly 3.3 percent of a projected population of 417 million people, the CDC says. That’s almost three times as many as were affected in 2014, 5 million – or 1.6 percent of the population.

The long-term study included 123 adults with an average age of 60 when the study began. The findings showed that those who were very sleepy during the day had a nearly threefold increased risk of developing brain deposits of beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease.