Alzheimers News & Features

Researchers report on a  potentially groundbreaking case of a woman whose genetic mutation staved off dementia for decades, even though her brain had already been damaged by Alzheimer's disease.

Some are urging caution about a new drug approved in China that claims to improve brain function in people with Alzheimer's disease.

The number of women with dementia is expected to rise from 4.7 million next year to 8.5 million in 2040. The number of men with dementia is projected to increase from 2.6 million to 4.5 million.

In the early stages of the disease, people with undiagnosed Alzheimer's are at high risk of making foolish and dangerous decisions about their finances, mostly because families may not know they need help, researchers say.

Most trans fats were banned in the United States last year. But foods with less than a half-gram of trans fats can be labeled as containing zero, so some foods still contain them.

Being calm and mature as teen were each associated with roughly a 10% reduction in adult dementia risk.

Health care professionals rely on several medications to lessen symptoms of agitation and aggression, but these medications carry significant risks. One, ironically, is worsening memory and thinking, the researchers said.

To help doctors get a better handle on their patients' mental state, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is urging physicians to assess patients aged 65 and older at least once a year.

Married people have a far lower chance of being diagnosed with this dreaded disorder than those who are divorced or separated, widowed, or never married, according to the study. And marriage is more protective than cohabitation, the study revealed.

Areas of the brain that keep you awake during the day are damaged in the early stages of the memory-robbing  disease, which is why people with Alzheimer's may nap excessively long before they start to struggle with forgetting things, the study authors said.

The analysis revealed a significant link between worsening depression symptoms and mental decline over two to seven years, and both of these trends seemed to be linked to a buildup of amyloid protein in brain tissue.

The blood test may be even more sensitive than the current gold standard -- a PET brain scan -- at detecting early amyloid accumulation in the brain, according to the authors.

Rates of Alzheimer's disease are higher in women than in men, and researchers now think they know why.

Even if you are unlucky enough to carry genes that predispose you to Alzheimer's disease, a healthy lifestyle can minimize that risk, new research shows.

The results revealed that participants between 18 and 65 who had family members with Alzheimer's scored lower than those who did not. That included even young adults in their 20s.

A new study has found that people 55 and older who took strong anticholinergic medications daily for three years or more had a 50% increased risk of dementia.

Researchers don't know whether the finding related to the drug nilvadipine can translate into any benefits for patients. But future studies should look into that possibility, they said.

If research confirms that high cholesterol plays a role in Alzheimer’s disease, officials may need to reduce our target levels for “bad” LDL cholesterol, the study author said.

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.