Alzheimers News

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.

Specifically, improvements in average thinking ("cognitive") skills in the summer and fall were equivalent to nearly 5 years less in age-related declines in thinking ability, the investigators found.

The association between stroke and increased dementia risk remained even after other dementia risk factors such as blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease were taken into account, the researchers say.

The newly identified genes suggest that an inflammatory response and changes in the production of certain proteins contribute to brain deterioration in Alzheimer's patients.

Patients with age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy or glaucoma had a 40 to 50 percent greater risk of Alzheimer's disease than those without the eye conditions, the authors of a new study report.

A promising new drug appears to be especially good at sopping up toxic pieces of beta amyloid protein that stick together in the brain and form the clumps that are a key characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers say.

Dementia patients who took sleeping pills had a 40 percent higher risk of fractures, and that risk increased with higher doses of the drugs, researchers report. Fractures, particularly hip fractures, increase the risk of premature death, the scientists noted.

Aggressively lowering high blood pressure to a goal of 120/80—the definition of normal—may trim the risk of developing the kind of thinking and memory changes that lead to dementia by about 15%, compared with people with higher blood pressures, according to new research presented at the 2018 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago.

Changing the lighting in nursing homes to regulate residents’ sleep and wake cycles helped decrease sleep disturbance, depression and agitation in people with Alzheimer’s, the authors of a new study say.

Canadian researchers found that a form of synthetic THC – ingredient in pot that gets you high - significantly decreased agitation in a small group of Alzheimer's patients, working even better than the drugs now used.