Category: Dementia

Nine years before memory changes, this can signal problems.

Changes in sense of humour could be an early sign of dementia, a study finds.

A shift to preferring slapstick humour — like Mr Bean — over satirical or absurdist comedy, such as Monty Python, could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s.

Friends and relatives of those with dementia reported seeing changes around nine years before the more typical memory problems.

Dr Camilla Clark, who led the study, said:

“As sense of humour defines us and is used to build relationships with those around us, changes in what we find funny has impacts far beyond picking a new favourite TV show.

We’ve highlighted the need to shift the emphasis from dementia being solely about memory loss.

These findings have implications for diagnosis – not only should personality and behaviour changes ring alarm bells, but clinicians themselves need to be more aware of these symptoms as an early sign of dementia.

As well as providing clues to underlying brain changes, subtle differences in what we find funny could help differentiate between the different diseases that cause dementia.

Humour could be a particularly sensitive way of detecting dementia because it puts demands on so many different aspects of brain function, such as puzzle solving, emotion and social awareness.”

The study included data from 48 friends and relatives of people with dementia.

Some of the most striking findings were for frontotemporal dementia, the most common cause of dementia in the under-55s.

People with this type of dementia began to laugh at events inappropriately many years before their eventual diagnosis.

For example, they would laugh at a badly parked car or a barking dog.

One man began laughing when his wife scalded herself badly.

People who went on to develop Alzheimer’s did not laugh in this way.

Dr Rob Buckle, Director of Science Programmes at the MRC, said:

“As we come to understand more about the symptoms of dementia we realise that the complex disease is about much more than memory loss.

Such insights will allow us to build up a full picture of the changes that people experience in the early stages of dementia and as the disease progresses, guiding both improved and earlier diagnosis and the delivery of care.

Recognising the behavioural patterns the disease follows will also help researchers discern different forms of the disease and identify suitable people for clinical trials to test new interventions.”

The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (Clark et al., 2015).

Just one cup a day is enough to reduce the risk.

Drinking tea is linked to a dramatic reduction in the risk of cognitive impairment in older people, research suggests.

A single daily cup of tea reduces cognitive decline in those over 55 by 50%, the Chinese study found.

Among those with a genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer’s, though, this risk reduction increased to 86%.

It did not matter which type of tea people consumed: green, black or oolong.

The only thing that mattered was that the tea was brewed from tea leaves.

Dr Feng Lei, the study’s first author, said:

“While the study was conducted on Chinese elderly, the results could apply to other races as well.

Our findings have important implications for dementia prevention.

Despite high quality drug trials, effective pharmacological therapy for neurocognitive disorders such as dementia remains elusive and current prevention strategies are far from satisfactory.

Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world.

The data from our study suggests that a simple and inexpensive lifestyle measure such as daily tea drinking can reduce a person’s risk of developing neurocognitive disorders in late life.”

For the research, 957 Chinese people were followed from 2003 to 2005.

They were regularly tested for signs of cognitive ageing.

Dr Feng explained why tea is likely to be beneficial:

“Based on current knowledge, this long term benefit of tea consumption is due to the bioactive compounds in tea leaves, such as catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins and L-theanine.

These compounds exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential and other bioactive properties that may protect the brain from vascular damage and neurodegeneration.

Our understanding of the detailed biological mechanisms is still very limited so we do need more research to find out definitive answers.”

The study was published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging (Feng et al., 2016).

People showed improved memory and the ability to perform tasks more quickly.

Regular moderate exercise is enough to slow brain ageing by the equivalent of ten years, research finds.

The study followed 876 people over 65-years-old across more than 10 years.

They were given tests of memory and thinking skills along with brain scans.

Unfortunately, 90 percent of the people in the study reported that they did light or no exercise.

Light exercise included things like yoga and walking.

Moderate exercise included things like aerobic, callisthenics and running.

Dr Clinton B. Wright, one of the study’s authors, said:

“The number of people over the age of 65 in the United States is on the rise, meaning the public health burden of thinking and memory problems will likely grow.

Our study showed that for older people, getting regular exercise may be protective, helping them keep their cognitive abilities longer.”

After five years, those who were at least moderately active could remember more words from a list and could perform simple tasks more quickly.

Dr Wright said:

“Physical activity is an attractive option to reduce the burden of cognitive impairment in public health because it is low cost and doesn’t interfere with medications.

Our results suggest that moderate to intense exercise may help older people delay aging of the brain, but more research from randomized clinical trials comparing exercise programs to more sedentary activity is needed to confirm these results.”

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Willey et al., 2016).

The light activities that a person can do to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

How unbearable is the thought of commuting nearly 400 miles a day or watching TV for 12 hours everyday?

Well, the thought is not that far from reality as most U.S. adults remain seated 12 hours of their daily life.

The mental and physical health conditions of a sedentary lifestyle are mostly known to us.

Sitting too long has been shown to increase the odds of many long-term diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other health issues including fatigue, depression, anxiety, and dementia.

To overcome the serious damage caused by an inactive lifestyle, general health guidelines recommend adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week.

A study, though, has found that doing light activities such as household tasks during the day will lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Dr Steven Hooker, the study’s first author, said:

“Light-intensity physical activity can include vacuuming, sweeping the floor, washing the car, leisure strolling, stretching, or playing catch.

We observed that both physical activity and being sedentary independently impacted stroke risk.

Our research demonstrates that strategies for stroke prevention should focus on both.”

In this study, nearly 8,000 adults aged 45 and older were recruited and followed over seven years.

The research team calculated the amount of time subjects spent sitting down and the intensity of physical activity.

To measure and record physical activity and sedentary time, participants had to wear a hip-mounted accelerometer during the day.

Next, they looked at the number of strokes that occurred during seven years of follow-up.

The results showed that participants who were inactive for 13 hours or longer throughout the day were 44 percent more likely to have a stroke.

Dr Hooker said:

“The findings are more potent because the activity and sedentary behaviors were measured with an accelerometer, providing substantially more accurate data than previous studies that relied on self-reported measures.”

According to U.S. national data from 2010 to 2015 published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 23 percent of adults met the guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities.

A different  study suggests that walking 7,000 steps (5.6 km or 3 miles) each day lowers the risk of death by about two-thirds in adults.

If doing so is not practical then exercising or taking part in light to moderate intensity activities for 10 minutes several times a day would help a lot to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Dr Hooker said:

“For overall heart and brain health, move more within your capacity, and sit less.”

The study was published in JAMA Network Open (Hooker et al., 2022).