http://www.dementiatoday.net/ en 2012-05-16T19:46:36+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/early-signs-of-parkinsons-might-be-seen-in-colon/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/early-signs-of-parkinsons-might-be-seen-in-colon/#When:19:46:36Z A colonoscopy or similar test could one day diagnose Parkinson’s disease years before symptoms occur. That’s because signs of Parkinson’s that appear in the brain also show up in the colon, a new study says. Researchers examined tissue samples obtained during colon exams of people who later developed Parkinson’s disease. The samples were taken several years before the patients showed symptoms of the neurological disorder. The cells in the patients’ intestinal walls were found to contain clumps of alpha-synuclein - a hallmark protein of Parkinson’s. In a previous study, these researchers found these aggregates were apparently unique to the gut of Parkinson’s disease patients- they were not seen in people with certain gut disorders or in healthy people. Dementia News 2012-05-16T19:46:36+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/obamas-grand-plan-to-cure-alzheimers/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/obamas-grand-plan-to-cure-alzheimers/#When:19:32:33Z Obama’s healthcare goals have been controversial at best, and although anti-smoking campaigns and other public health and safety awareness drives have been successful, it’s always somewhat dubious when government starts creating grand plans and lofty goals. Nonetheless, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has released an ambitious and wide ranging national plan to fight Alzheimer’s disease. The plan, known as The National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), which Obama signed into law in Feb 2012, includes five goals, such as development of treatment and prevention for Alzheimer’s disease and other associated dementias by 2025. The announcement today is accompanied by National Institutes of Health (NIH) $50M in additional funding for 2012 to be directed at Alzheimer’s disease; more specifically, at high quality and up to date training for clinicians and a new public information campaign. The campaign is driven, as is often the case, in part by concern that with an aging population and numbers of American patients suffering from the disease expected to rise from the current 5.4 million to 16 million by 2050, burdening the healthcare system with costs project to soar to a trillion dollars. Dementia News 2012-05-16T19:32:33+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/80-million-research-plan-takes-aim-at-alzheimers/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/80-million-research-plan-takes-aim-at-alzheimers/#When:09:05:45Z An $80 million national research plan to attack Alzheimer’s, a mind-robbing malady that may affect as many as 16 million Americans by 2050, will start this year with U.S.-sponsored studies on ways to prevent the disease in high-risk people and treat it with an insulin nasal spray. The National Institutes of Health will spend $7.9 million researching the spray and $16 million on the first study to focus on growth of the disease in high-risk patients, according to a statement today by Department of Health and Human Services. The plan is part of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, signed into law last year, which aims to develop new ways to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s by 2025. About 5.4 million Americans have the disease now, according to the Centers for Disease and Prevention in Atlanta. The goal, to develop new treatments by 2025, faces tough challenges, said Ronald Petersen, director of Alzheimer’s disease research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Dementia News 2012-05-16T09:05:45+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/gene-variants-that-speed-parkinsons-progression/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/gene-variants-that-speed-parkinsons-progression/#When:08:51:09Z UCLA researchers may have found a key to determining which Parkinson’s disease patients will experience a more rapid decline in motor function, sparking hopes for the development of new therapies and helping identify those who could benefit most from early intervention. In a study published May 15 in the peer-reviewed online journal PLoS ONE, the researchers found that Parkinson’s sufferers who possess two specific variants of a gene known to be a risk factor for the disease had a significantly speedier progression toward motor decline than patients without these variants. “This is a relatively small study, with 233 patients, but the effects we’re seeing are actually quite large,” said Dr. Beate Ritz, vice chair of the department of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the study’s primary investigator. Dementia News 2012-05-16T08:51:09+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/ambitious-alzheimers-plan/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/ambitious-alzheimers-plan/#When:06:20:46Z The U.S. government launched an ambitious push to develop new treatments for Alzheimer’s on Tuesday with a first prevention study of high-risk patients and tests on an insulin nasal spray that has shown promise in earlier studies. The trials, funded by grants of $16 million and $7.9 million respectively, are part of a national Alzheimer’s plan, a sweeping effort to find an effective way to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s by 2025 and improve the care of those already afflicted with the brain-wasting disease. Experts predict that without more effective drugs, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s will double by 2050 and annual related healthcare costs could soar to more than $1 trillion. Dementia News 2012-05-15T06:20:46+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/individuals-with-dementia-more-likely/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/individuals-with-dementia-more-likely/#When:04:14:31Z A new study from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University has found that, at time of death, individuals with dementia are more likely to be living at home than in a nursing home. This contradicts the commonly held view that most individuals with dementia in the United States eventually move to nursing homes and die there. “Transitions in Care for Older Adults With and Without Dementia” appears online in advance of publication in the May 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Most individuals with dementia, even advanced dementia, die of a physical condition such as heart disease, cancer or pneumonia. This study is the first to track movement of individuals with dementia until death regardless of whether the cause of death was recorded as dementia or as another condition. The study follows these individuals to determine where they receive care and in what order. Rather than finding individuals with dementia progressing on a straight line from home to hospital to nursing home as presumed, the researchers found that individuals with dementia go back and forth. The number and direction of transitions in care can be numerous and follow no determined path. Dementia News 2012-05-15T04:14:31+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/resveratrol-study-for-alzheimers-disease/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/resveratrol-study-for-alzheimers-disease/#When:04:47:25Z A national, phase II clinical trial examining the effects of resveratrol on individuals with mild to moderate dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease has begun as more than two dozen academic institutions recruit volunteers in the coming months. R. Scott Turner, M.D., Ph.D., director of Georgetown University Medical Center’s Memory Disorders Program, is the lead investigator for the national study. Resveratrol is a compound found in red grapes, red grape juice, red wine, chocolate, tomatoes and peanuts. Pre-clinical and pilot clinical research studies suggest that resveratrol may prevent diabetes, act as a natural cancer fighter, ward off cardiovascular disease, and prevent memory loss, but there has been no large definitive study of its effects in humans. The risk of all of these diseases increases with aging. Animal studies suggest that resveratrol may impede molecular mechanisms of aging. Human population studies suggest several health benefits from modest daily consumption of red wine, but the mechanisms of action in the body are unknown. Dementia News 2012-05-14T04:47:25+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/vitamin-k2-new-hope-for-parkinsons-patients/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/vitamin-k2-new-hope-for-parkinsons-patients/#When:08:43:09Z Neuroscientist Patrik Verstreken, associated with VIB and KU Leuven, succeeded in undoing the effect of one of the genetic defects that leads to Parkinson’s using vitamin K2. His discovery gives hope to Parkinson’s patients. This research was done in collaboration with colleagues from Northern Illinois University (US) and will be published this evening on the website of the authorative journal Science. “It appears from our research that administering vitamin K2 could possibly help patients with Parkinson’s. However, more work needs to be done to understand this better,” says Patrik Verstreken. Malfunctioning power plants are at the basis of Parkinson’s. If we looked at cells as small factories, then mitochondria would be the power plants responsible for supplying the energy for their operation. They generate this energy by transporting electrons. In Parkinson’s patients, the activity of mitochondria and the transport of electrons have been disrupted, resulting in the mitochondria no longer producing sufficient energy for the cell. This has major consequences as the cells in certain parts of the brain will start dying off, disrupting communication between neurons. The results are the typical symptoms of Parkinson’s: lack of movement (akinesia), tremors and muscle stiffness. Dementia News 2012-05-13T08:43:09+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/brain-associated-with-alzheimers-disease/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/brain-associated-with-alzheimers-disease/#When:05:47:40Z Greater purpose in life may help stave off the harmful effects of plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. The study, published in the May issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, is available online at http://www.archgenpsychiatry.com. “Our study showed that people who reported greater purpose in life exhibited better cognition than those with less purpose in life even as plaques and tangles accumulated in their brains,” said Patricia A. Boyle, PhD. “These findings suggest that purpose in life protects against the harmful effects of plaques and tangles on memory and other thinking abilities. This is encouraging and suggests that engaging in meaningful and purposeful activities promotes cognitive health in old age.” Boyle and her colleagues from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center studied 246 participants from the Rush Memory and Aging Project who did not have dementia and who subsequently died and underwent brain autopsy. Participants received an annual clinical evaluation for up to approximately 10 years, which included detailed cognitive testing and neurological exams. Dementia News 2012-05-08T05:47:40+00:00 http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/deep-brain-stimulation-may-hold-promise-for-mild-alzheimers-disease/ http://www.dementiatoday.net/article/deep-brain-stimulation-may-hold-promise-for-mild-alzheimers-disease/#When:05:37:46Z A study on a handful of people with suspected mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) suggests that a device that sends continuous electrical impulses to specific “memory” regions of the brain appears to increase neuronal activity. Results of the study using deep brain stimulation, a therapy already used in some patients with Parkinson’s disease and depression, may offer hope for at least some with AD, an intractable disease with no cure. “While our study was designed mainly to establish safety, involved only six people and needs to be replicated on a larger scale, we don’t have another treatment for AD at present that shows such promising effects on brain function,” said the study’s first author, Gwenn Smith, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The research, published in the Archives of Neurology, was conducted while Smith was on the faculty at the University of Toronto, and will be continuing at Toronto, Hopkins and other U.S. sites in the future. The study was led by Andres M. Lozano, chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto. One month and one year after implanting a device that allows for continuous electrical impulses to the brain, Smith and her colleagues performed PET scans that detect changes in brain cells’ metabolism of glucose, and found that patients with mild forms of AD showed sustained increases in glucose metabolism, an indicator of neuronal activity. The increases, the researchers say, were larger than those found in patients who have taken the drugs currently marketed to fight AD progression. Other imaging studies have shown that a decrease in glucose metabolism over the course of a year is typical in AD. Alzheimer’s disease cannot be precisely diagnosed by brain biopsies until after death. Dementia News 2012-05-08T05:37:46+00:00