Some daytime napping is normal, but too much can be sign of dementia.
With age people’s memory and thinking naturally slows down — but this process can be held in check.
Pet owners retain their cognitive abilities better with age than those without pets.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.
This Alzheimer’s early warning sign could provide a way of warding off the neurodegenerative disease.
This Alzheimer’s early warning sign could provide a way of warding off the neurodegenerative disease.
Poor sleep could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s in people who are otherwise healthy, research finds.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.
Scientists have found links between certain biological markers of Alzheimer’s and sleep disturbances.
Dr Barbara B. Bendlin, who led the study, said:
“Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer’s disease in various ways.
For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque build-up because the brain’s clearance system kicks into action during sleep.
Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well.”
The study was carried out on 101 people with an average age of 63.
All were at risk of Alzheimer’s, although none had any symptoms.
The results showed that those with the worst sleep quality also had biological markers of Alzheimer’s in their spinal fluid.
Dr Bendlin said:
“It’s important to identify modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s given that estimates suggest that delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people by a mere five years could reduce the number of cases we see in the next 30 years by 5.7 million and save $367 billion in health care spending.”
Not everyone with sleep problems had the biological markers, though, said Dr Bendlin:
“It’s still unclear if sleep may affect the development of the disease or if the disease affects the quality of sleep.
More research is needed to further define the relationship between sleep and these biomarkers.
Improving sleep could be one way of helping to ward off Alzheimer’s, said Dr Bendlin:
“There are already many effective ways to improve sleep.
It may be possible that early intervention for people at risk of Alzheimer’s disease may prevent or delay the onset of the disease.”
The study was published in the journal Neurology (Sprecher et al., 2017).
…and the type of memory problems that are nothing to worry about.
…and the type of memory problems that are nothing to worry about.
Almost everyone has memory glitches from time-to-time — they are usually not a sign of dementia.
Here are a few perfectly normal memory problems:
These are nothing to worry about.
Memory is also affected by poor sleep, stress and depression.
Most people who think they have some memory problems, actually do not.
The reason is that people who are having more serious memory problems are usually not aware of them.
Often it is friends and relatives who suggest a person having memory problems should get checked out.
Somewhat worrying memory problems to watch out for include:
The signs above are slightly more worrying but could still be the result of stress, poor sleep or grief.
The following signs, though, are more serious and would probably warrant being checked out by a physician:
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Exercise is now considered one of the main protective factors against dementia.
New memories are likely to be lost unless they are consolidated correctly.
New memories are likely to be lost unless they are consolidated correctly.
Rehearsing a memory for just 40 seconds could be the key to permanent recall, a study finds.
When rehearsing a memory, the same area of the brain is activated as when laying it down, psychologists found.
This brain region — the posterior cingulate — is also the part that is damaged in Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr Chris Bird, who led the research, said:
“We know that recent memories are susceptible to being lost until a period of consolidation has elapsed.
In this study we have shown that a brief period of rehearsal has a huge effect on our ability to remember complex, lifelike events over periods of 1-2 weeks.
We have also linked this rehearsal effect to processing in a particular part of the brain — the posterior cingulate.”
In the study people were shown 26 YouTube clips.
For most of the videos, people spent 40 seconds going over the events.
They did this either mentally or out loud.
Two weeks later, non-rehearsed videos were mostly forgotten.
In contrast, people remembered many of the details of the videos they had spent just 40 seconds rehearsing.
It didn’t matter if they went over them mentally or out loud.
Brain scans revealed that the more the activity matched when watching and rehearsing, the more people could remember.
Dr Bird said:
“The findings have implications for any situation where accurate recall of an event is critical, such as witnessing an accident or crime.
Memory for the event will be significantly improved if the witness rehearses the sequence of events as soon as possible afterwards.”
The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Bird et al., 2015).
On your side, face-up or face-down? The position which best clears metabolic waste from your brain at night.
On your side, face-up or face-down? The position which best clears metabolic waste from your brain at night.
Sleeping on your side removes waste from the brain most efficiently, a study finds.
As a result, sleeping in a lateral position may help reduce the chance of developing Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.
Professor Maiken Nedergaard, one of the study’s authors, said:
“It is interesting that the lateral sleep position is already the most popular in human and most animals — even in the wild — and it appears that we have adapted the lateral sleep position to most efficiently clear our brain of the metabolic waste products that built up while we are awake.
The study therefore adds further support to the concept that sleep subserves a distinct biological function of sleep and that is to ‘clean up’ the mess that accumulates while we are awake.
Many types of dementia are linked to sleep disturbances, including difficulties in falling asleep.
It is increasing acknowledged that these sleep disturbances may accelerate memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease.
Our finding brings new insight into this topic by showing it is also important what position you sleep in.”
The study of mice tested the brain’s ‘clean-up’ mechanism in three different sleeping positions:
Scientists monitored the filtering of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through the brain as it exchanged with interstitial fluid.
This pathway — called the glymphatic pathway — clears waste from the brain most efficiently at night.
Professor Helene Benveniste, another of the study’s authors, said:
“The analysis showed us consistently that glymphatic transport was most efficient in the lateral position when compared to the supine or prone positions.
Because of this finding, we propose that the body posture and sleep quality should be considered when standardizing future diagnostic imaging procedures to assess CSF-ISF transport in humans and therefore the assessment of the clearance of damaging brain proteins that may contribute to or cause brain diseases.”
The next step will be to test the finding in humans.
The research was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Lee et al., 2015).
There is a specific diet that can lower the risk of dementia.
There is a specific diet that can lower the risk of dementia.
Following the Mediterranean-ketogenic diet can result in lower levels of Alzheimer’s disease markers, a study has found.
It suggest that a modified Mediterranean-ketogenic diet (MMKD) is able to influence the gut bacteria and its metabolites that in turn improves Alzheimer’s disease in adults.
Participants ate less than 20 g of carbohydrates, making up about 10 percent of total calories per day for 6 weeks.
The diet plan included generous amounts of foods rich in healthy fats.
Fatty fish, avocados, eggs, cheese, dark chocolate, nuts and seeds are examples high-fat foods that are actually nutritious and healthy.
Participants on MMKD had various types of fish, lean meats and extra virgin olive oil in their meals.
Microbial imbalance in the gut can affect the production of certain proteins known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
BDNF is needed for neuronal development and it is important for long-term memory.
Declining BDNF levels have been linked to cognitive impairment, cognitive ageing and dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The MMKD can improve good gut bacteria, leading to positive effects on BDNF and neural pathways to slow down the decline in memory and thinking.
Dr Hariom Yadav, study co-author, said:
“The relationship of the gut microbiome and diet to neurodegenerative diseases has recently received considerable attention, and this study suggests that Alzheimer’s disease is associated with specific changes in gut bacteria and that a type of ketogenic Mediterranean diet can affect the microbiome in ways that could impact the development of dementia.”
The gut microbiome includes all the microorganisms as well as good and bad bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.
These bacteria generate many metabolites (substances produced during metabolism) that directly or indirectly have an effect on brain function.
Short-chain fatty acids are amongst these metabolites and they are produced during fermentation of undigested carbohydrates.
These fatty acids are beneficial to the nervous system and also influence brain signals to regulate appetite and food intake.
The study was published in the journal EBioMedicine (Nagpal et al., 2019).
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