Study pays volunteers 60+ to exercise
What’s the best way to prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease? It might be by exercising several days a week. If that sounds daunting, consider enrolling in a study at the University of Maryland, which pays you to work out in your home for four hours a week. The Exercise for Brain Health — Fight Against Alzheimer’s Disease study (E4BH-FAD) began in early 2019, but had to cancel... READ MORE
Recent Alzheimer’s prevention research
Research from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) shows that damaged capillaries in the brain — independent of plaques and tangles of abnormal proteins — may set the stage for Alzheimer’s decades before memory problems emerge. “The fact that we’re seeing the blood vessels leaking, independent of tau and independent of amyloid, when... READ MORE
Drug shown to curb dementia’s delusions
A drug that curbs delusions in Parkinson’s patients did the same for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in a study that was stopped early because the benefit seemed clear. If regulators agree, the drug could become the first treatment specifically for dementia-related psychosis and the first new medicine for Alzheimer’s in nearly two decades. It targets... READ MORE
Is there an anti-Alzheimer’s supplement?
Over the past few months, there has been an aggressive advertising campaign on television and in the print media to promote a product that goes by the name Prevagen. In the advertisements and commercials, Prevagen is touted as a breakthrough product that can improve memory and other cognitive functions for those who are experiencing the effects of aging. Though not overt, there is... READ MORE
Hope for nipping Alzheimer’s in the bud
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to nip Alzheimer’s disease in the bud before it got started — or at least nab it in its early stages? This has, of course, been the dream of researchers and medical professionals for several decades. Now it appears the dream might soon become a reality. Last month, an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences... READ MORE
Dementia risk raised by cancer treatment
Alzheimer’s disease may be a risk for older prostate cancer patients given hormone-blocking treatment, a large, U.S. government-funded analysis found. Previous evidence has been mixed on whether the treatment might be linked with mental decline. But experts say the new results stand out because they’re from a respected national cancer database and the men were tracked for a long time ... READ MORE
Lifestyle may offset Alzheimer’s genetic risk
A large study has found that, regardless of how much genetic risk someone had for Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, a good diet, adequate exercise, limiting alcohol and not smoking made dementia less likely. About 50 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type. Genes and lifestyle contribute to many diseases, but researchers only... READ MORE
New Alzheimer’s-like condition identified
Some people told they have Alzheimer’s may instead have a newly identified mimic of the disease — and scientists say even though neither is yet curable, it’s critical to get better at telling different kinds of dementia apart. Too often, the word dementia is used interchangeably with Alzheimer’s when there are multiple types of brain degeneration that can harm people’s memory... READ MORE
Raising voices with joy despite dementia
In a bright, spacious meeting room at Salisbury Presbyterian Church, more than 20 singers gather to rehearse Broadway songs for their spring performance. The Joyful Voices group harmonizes to The Sound of Music, lifting their voices as they sing the opening words: “The hills are alive.” One member of the chorus arrives late, but the moment she walks in the door, her mouth is... READ MORE
Help researchers understand Alzheimer’s
Over the last 15 years, researchers have made strides in better understanding the development and detection of Alzheimer’s disease — if not in treatments for the disease itself. Some of these discoveries — such as that brain changes take place years before there are outward signs of Alzheimer’s, and that many genes may play a role in who gets the disease — have come about... READ MORE
