Feature Channels: Alzheimer's and Dementia

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A new study has found that mentally stimulating activities like using a computer, playing games, crafting and participating in social activities are linked to a lower risk or delay of age-related memory loss called mild cognitive impairment, and that the timing and number of these activities may also play a role. The study is published in the July 10, 2019, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Soccer is a not only a favorite sport and pastime for people all over the world but it’s great for brain health for all ages, according to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA).

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The National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $4.23 million grant to establish the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

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An observational study of 663 caregivers and the patients with dementia they care for suggests caregiver depression is associated with increased emergency department visits for their patients. A total of 84 caregivers had depression at the study start and it was associated with an increase in rates of emergency department use by patients after accounting for a number of other potential mitigating factors

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UC San Diego will launch a payload of stem cell-derived human brain organoids to the International Space Station. Researchers will document how these “mini brains” organize into the beginnings of a functional brain with implications for the future of human life in space.

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Scientists consider how unexpected awakenings in dementia patients might shed new light on the disease.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered a pathway that functions like a car wash to prevent the buildup of a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The report appeared online today in the journal Cell.

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胶质母细胞瘤是成人中最常见的脑肿瘤，根据Mayo Clinic的一项新研究，尽管胶质母细胞瘤患者的中位生存率和短期生存率有所提高，但达到五年生存期的患者比例仍然很低。

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Scientists at UAB have identified an enzyme in the brain, LIMK1, that may be an intriguing target for interventions against Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia due to its interactions with dendritic spines.

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Researchers have introduce supervised machine learning as a modern approach and new value-added complementary tool in cognitive brain health assessment and related patient care and management.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that immune cells that typically protect neurons from damage may be the link between early and late brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease. Breaking that link could lead to new approaches to delay or prevent the disease.

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In a study using brain tissue from deceased human donors, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they found new evidence that schizophrenia can be marked by the buildup of abnormal proteins similar to those found in the brains of people with such neurodegenerative disorders as Alzheimer’s or Huntington’s diseases.

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A new study has found that variability in night-to-night sleep time and reduced sleep quality adversely affect the ability of older adults to recall information about past events. The study also found unexpected racial differences in the type of sleep patterns tied to lower memory performance across both younger and older African American research participants.

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NUS researchers invented a highly sensitive blood test for faster, cheaper and more accurate detection of Alzheimer's disease, even before clinical symptoms appear. This technology complements existing clinical and neuropsychological tests for early detection and better management of the disease.

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Hot summer weather can be challenging for the elderly. For example, they are more vulnerable to dehydration and heat-related illnesses, like heat stroke and heat exhaustion, than younger people. Make sure the senior citizen under your care drinks plenty of water, has access to air conditioning, and wears sun protection clothing. Going on vacation? Keep in mind that for those with dementia, traveling may be difficult and confusing. By taking special precautions and establishing a support system, the senior under your care can have an active, healthy, and safe summer.

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Pese a las mejores tasas de supervivencia promedio y a corto plazo de los pacientes con el tumor cerebral más frecuente entre los adultos, conocido como glioblastoma, todavía es bajo el porcentaje que logra sobrevivir 5 años según un estudio de Mayo Clinic.

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For the first time, researchers in the University of Georgia's Regenerative Bioscience Center have used an imaging method normally reserved for humans to analyze brain activity in live agricultural swine models, and they have discovered that pig brains are even better platforms than previously thought for the study of human neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

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A team of researchers from McMaster University has mapped at atomic resolution a toxic protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, allowing them to better understand what is happening deep within the brain during the earliest stages of the disease.

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New research may explain why an antioxidant that protects the brain is associated with deterioration in areas susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease. Superoxide dismutase improves cognition, but its protective benefits weaken when levels of tau proteins – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease – increase.

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An increasing number of studies are finding intimate communication between the gut and brain, as well as complex interplay among the gut microbiome, the brain and the rest of the body. But does the gut affect epilepsy? More specifically, can certain populations of bacteria predispose to seizures, and can we harness the power of the microbiome to stop seizures?

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An international research team led by scientists at UAB has identified a fibril form of alpha-synuclein as a potential target for therapeutics that might help slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

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In a search for clues to what may delay or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists report that smarter, more educated people aren’t protected from the disease, but do get a cognitive “head start” that may keep their minds functioning better temporarily.

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When Guy Bradley began having episodes of memory loss and confusion, doctors suspected a stroke or dementia. Instead, an EEG showed that the 69-yeard old epilepsy, which is frequently missed in older patients because it's presumed to be a "children's disease."

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A new study finds that people who have movement problems, symptoms that cannot be explained by an underlying disease, may have chemical changes in specific areas of the brain. The study is published in the June 5, 2019, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. These symptoms, which include tremors, muscle contractions or problems with walking, are called functional or psychogenic motor symptoms.

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If you're looking for health and fitness story ideas, view these research highlights from the May 2019 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise®, ACSM’s flagship journal. ACSM is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world.

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The researchers have determined that gum disease (gingivitis) plays a decisive role in whether a person developes Alzheimer´s or not.

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Georgetown University Medical Center announces the launch of the only known therapeutic (disease modifying) clinical trial for Lewy body dementia, a neurological disorder that affects a million people in the United States for which there are no approved medications that modify the disease.

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A new study indicates that racism is toxic to humans.

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Researchers with the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Emory University have found a link between high LDL cholesterol levels and early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

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Something as simple as a phone call could be a way to alert health care providers and caregivers that an elderly person suffering from dementia may be spiraling down to dangerous self-neglect, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

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Aging adults often show signs of slowing when it comes to managing their finances, such as calculating their change when paying cash or balancing an account ledger. But trouble managing money can also be a harbinger of dementia and, according to new Duke research in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, could be correlated to the amount of protein deposits built up in the brain.

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New research indicates that older patients who develop delirium— an acute attentional deficit that waxes and wanes —right after surgery are more likely to show signs of postoperative cognitive dysfunction one month later

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Researchers examining post-mortem brain tissue from people ages 79 to 99 found that new neurons continue to form well into old age. The study provides evidence that this occurs even in people with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, although neurogenesis is significantly reduced in these people compared to older adults with normal cognitive functioning.

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Targeting a key gene before birth could someday help lead to a treatment for Down syndrome by reversing abnormal embryonic brain development and improving cognitive function after birth, according to a Rutgers-led study.

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A new study by Stony Brook University researchers reveals that higher education is associated with later onset of Alzheimer’s-related accelerated cognitive declines. Their findings will be published early online in the Journal of Gerontology.

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Memorial Day Travel Tips for Families Impacted by Alzheimer's Disease

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UNLV researchers have discovered a novel method for how two parts of the brain — the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) — work together to retrieve long-term memories.

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Roughly four out of five people won’t ever experience memory issues more serious than the “senior moments” of normal aging.

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Researchers at UC Davis Health and UC San Francisco have found a way to teach a computer to detect one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease

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Many Americans in their 50s and early 60s are worried about declining brain health, especially if they have loved ones with memory loss and dementia, a new national poll finds. But while the majority of those polled say they take supplements or do puzzles in an effort to stave off brain decline, very few of them have talked with their doctors about evidence-based ways to prevent memory loss. So they may miss out on proven strategies to keep their brains sharp into their later years.

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Researchers at UC Davis and UC San Francisco have found a way to teach a computer to precisely detect one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease in human brain tissue, delivering a proof of concept for a machine-learning approach to distinguishing critical markers of the disease.

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Scientists might have found an early detection method for some forms of dementia

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A new clinical trial at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and two other sites is testing an innovative procedure that may provide hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. The non-invasive procedure uses low-intensity focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier.

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**Note to journalists: Michael Miller, Ph.D., will discuss this research at the Johns Hopkins Science Writers’ Boot Camp on June 10 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Learn more and register for the free, daylong immersion in topics about mental health and addiction.

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Researchers at The University of Chicago have demonstrated that the type of bacteria living in the gut can influence the development of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms in mice. The study, which will be published May 16 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that, by altering the gut microbiome, long-term antibiotic treatment reduces inflammation and slows the growth of amyloid plaques in the brains of male mice, though the same treatment has no effect on female animals.

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Em colaboração com a Universidade de Kentucky, Centro Médico da Universidade de Texas Southwest, o Centro Médico da Universidade Rush e a Universidade de Cambridge no Reino Unido, entre outras instituições, os pesquisadores da Mayo Clinic ajudaram a estabelecer um nome para uma doença cerebral degenerativa que aflige os idosos e imita características da doença de Alzheimer.

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Virtual reality (VR) technology could vastly improve the quality of life for people with dementia by helping to recall past memories

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Los investigadores de Mayo Clinic, en colaboración con la Universidad de Kentucky, el Centro Médico Suroccidental de la Universidad de Texas, el Centro Médico de la Universidad de Rush, la Universidad de Cambridge en el Reino Unido y otras instituciones, ayudaron a establecer el nombre de una enfermedad cerebral degenerativa que afecta a los ancianos e imita las características de la enfermedad de Alzheimer.

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Luke Montrose, assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health, has been awarded a grant from the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Idaho INBRE) to fund a two-year pilot study related to Alzheimer’s disease.