The role stress may play in causing dementia is being investigated in a new research project funded by the Alzheimer’s Society. The study, being led by Professor Clive Holmes at the University of Southampton, will monitor 140 people aged over 50 with mild cognitive impairment during an 18-month period.
A once-a-day tablet that harnesses a chemical found in pine cones shows great promise in both preventing and slowing the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. The drug, known as NIC5-15, has been shown in animal studies to be effective in preventing the formation of amyloid plaques.
Scientists have found a way to teach an old beagle forgotten tricks in research that suggests a healthy diet could help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have touched many of us. My uncle has Alzheimer’s. He does not remember us.
If nuts can help stave off Alzheimer’s, what else is good for your mind. Here are some ways to keep your brain healthy. It is the ticking timebomb that will affect 1.7 million of us in just 40 years.
A diet high in omega-3, found in fish and some oils, can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 per cent, a study has claimed. Even eating oily fish once a week can cut the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by a third, while eating fruit and vegetables every day reduces the chances of getting dementia in old age by almost 30 per cent. In the study, in the journal Neurology, a total of 8,085 men and women in France aged over 65 were given diet questionnaires and medical tests at the start of the research and after four years
Scientists in the US who looked at 65 health elderly people, whose average age was 76, found those who did so tended to lower amounts of a destructive protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, than those who were less mentally active. The researchers at the University of California’s Berkeley campus found they had less beta-amyloid, which are thought to cause Alzheimer’s when they accumulate in sufficient quantities to fold into tangles plaques. Using brain scans, they compared the levels of amyloid plaques in the 65 volunteers, with 11 people in their 20s.
US researchers linked to Harvard University found older women who ate lots of food high in saturated fats had worse memories than others. By contrast, those who ate more monounsaturated fats – found in olive oil, sunflower oil, seeds, nuts and avocados – had better memories. Dr Oliva Okereke, from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., which is affiliated to Harvard Medical School, said: “When looking at changes in cognitive function, what we found is that the total amount of fat intake did not really matter, but the type of fat did.” She and fellow researchers made their conclusions after looking at results from 6,000 women over 65, who carried out a series of mental tests over four years and answered questionnaires about their diet and lifestyle
An experimental form of gene therapy has given hope of a significant advance in the treatment of dementia. The therapy, in which a nerve growth factor delayed the loss of brain cells, led to increased metabolic activity in the brain of Alzheimer’s sufferers and a reduction in the decline of cognitive functions. Though the study […]
“Please wear a tux,” I said over the phone to Don, the classical violinist I was hiring to play a special concert for my Romanian soul mate, Ed, in his room at the Alois Alzheimer Center in Cincinnati. I described Ed’s dementia to Don, adding that Ed had been a college professor who loved classical […]