Category: Dementia

New study on elderly mice suggests cannabis could be a good treatment for dementia.

Cannabis reverses the brain ageing process, new research finds.

The study on elderly mice showed that their brains could be regressed to the state of two-month-olds.

They were given a low-dose treatment with a cannabis-active ingredient (THC).

THC could prove to be a good treatment for dementia eventually, the researchers think.

Professor Andreas Zimmer, who led the research, said:

“With increasing age, the quantity of the cannabinoids naturally formed in the brain reduces.

When the activity of the cannabinoid system declines, we find rapid ageing in the brain.

It looked as though the THC treatment turned back the molecular clock.”

The ‘elderly’ mice in the study were actually two-years-old.

Mice normally start to show cognitive deficits at around one-year-old.

However, a four week low-dose course of THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) reversed these cognitive deficits.

Professor Zimmer said:

“The treatment completely reversed the loss of performance in the old animals.”

The next stage is to conduct clinical trials in humans.

The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine (Bilkei-Gorzo et al., 2017).

Shiny brain image from Shutterstock

Studies on both humans and mice have suggested a protective effect.

Caffeine — along with 24 other compounds — could help to protect against dementia.

The protective effect comes from an enzyme called NMNAT2 that was discovered last year.

Professor Hui-Chen Lu, who led the study, said:

“This work could help advance efforts to develop drugs that increase levels of this enzyme in the brain, creating a chemical ‘blockade’ against the debilitating effects of neurodegenerative disorders.”

NMNAT2 plays a dual role.

It guards neurons against stress and helps fight the formation of the tangles of proteins that are linked to dementia.

Caffeine has already been shown to improve memory function in mice.

One study on humans has also linked caffeine to a 36% reduction in dementia.

Research has now shown that caffeine increases levels of the critical NMNAT2 protein in mice.

Professor Lu said:

“Increasing our knowledge about the pathways in the brain that appear to naturally cause the decline of this necessary protein is equally as important as identifying compounds that could play a role in future treatment of these debilitating mental disorders.”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Ali et al., 2017).

Changes in sleep quality are linked to dementia.

People who sleep more than 9 hours a night have double the risk of developing dementia, new research reports.

Those sleeping longer also have lower brain volumes.

The exception was well-educated people, Professor Sudha Seshadri, a study author, explained:

“Participants without a high school degree who sleep for more than 9 hours each night had six times the risk of developing dementia in 10 years as compared to participants who slept for less.

These results suggest that being highly educated may protect against dementia in the presence of long sleep duration.”

The conclusions come from a study that followed people over 10 years to see who developed dementia.

People who slept 9 hours or more were at double the risk of developing dementia as those who slept less than 9 hours a night.

Dr Matthew Pase, study co-author, said:

“Self-reported sleep duration may be a useful clinical tool to help predict persons at risk of progressing to clinical dementia within 10 years.

Persons reporting long sleep time may warrant assessment and monitoring for problems with thinking and memory.”

However, it is probably not excessive sleep that is a cause of dementia.

Rather, excessive sleep is a symptom of dementia.

Dr Rosa Sancho, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said:

“While unusual sleep patterns are common for people with dementia, this study adds to existing research suggesting that changes in sleep could be apparent long before symptoms like memory loss start to show.

Other studies have indicated a link between changes in sleep quality and the onset of dementia, and while this wasn’t measured in this study, it could be an important factor affecting sleep duration.”

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Westwood et al., 2017).

The first study to identify a 10% increased dementia risk resulting from home location.

One-in-ten cases of dementia could be down to living near busy roads, new research finds.

Scientists had previously guessed that both traffic noise and air pollution may contribute to neurodegenerative disorders.

But this is the first study to find evidence of the link.

The results from a study of 6.6 million people in Canada.

It found that living within 50 metres of a busy road significantly raised the risk of dementia.

The study looked at the link between living near a busy road and developing:

• multiple sclerosis,
• Parkinson’s disease,
• and dementia.

Only dementia risk was associated with living near a busy road.

The further people lived from a busy road, the more their risk reduced:

• 7-11% higher risk for those living within 50 metres.
• 4% higher risk for those living 50-100 metres away.
• 2% higher risk for those living 101-200 metres.
• No additional risk for those living more than 200 metres away.

Dr Hong Chen, the study’s first author, said:

“Despite the growing impact of these diseases, little is known about their causes and prevention.

Our study suggests that busy roads could be a source of environmental stressors that could give rise to the onset of dementia.

Increasing population growth and urbanisation has placed many people close to heavy traffic, and with widespread exposure to traffic and growing rates of dementia, even a modest effect from near-road exposure could pose a large public health burden.

More research to understand this link is needed, particularly into the effects of different aspects of traffic, such as air pollutants and noise.”

The study also found that exposure to both nitrogen oxide and fine particulate matter were both linked to dementia risk.

Although both are common pollutants, they did not explain the full risk, which may be attributable to other factors, such as noise pollution.

Dr Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas, writing in a linked article, said:

“The significant association of newly diagnosed cases of dementia in the study period between 2001 and 2012 with the proximity to traffic road less than 50 m-300 m versus more than 300 m, and the robust observation of dementia involving predominantly urban versus rural residents, opens up a crucial global health concern for millions of people…

The health repercussions of living close to heavy traffic vary considerably among exposed populations, given that traffic includes exposures to complex mixtures of environmental insults…

We must implement preventive measures now, rather than take reactive actions decades from now.”

The study was published in the journal The Lancet (Chen et al., 2016).

An activity that may reduce dementia risk by two-thirds.

Frequent saunas are linked to a reduction of 66% in developing dementia, new research finds.

Compared with those taking a sauna once a week, those taking saunas 4-7 times a week saw the marked reduction in dementia risk.

It is the first time a link has been identified between taking saunas and a lower risk of dementia.

The results come from a Finnish study of 2,315 middle-aged men.

They were followed up over an average of 20 years later.

The researchers found that Alzheimer’s risk was reduced by 65% among those taking frequent saunas.

The risk of developing any form of dementia was reduced by 66% in the frequent sauna group.

For those taking 2-3 saunas a week, the reduction in risk was around 20%.

The study’s authors conclude that:

“…in this male population, moderate to high frequency of sauna bathing was associated with lowered risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Further studies are warranted to establish the potential mechanisms linking sauna bathing and memory diseases.

One cause of the beneficial effects of saunas could be down to its effect on cardiovascular health.

Previous studies have also found that saunas may reduce the chances of sudden cardiac death as well as the chances of other heart problems (Laukkanen et al., 2015).

It could be that the benefit to the heart acts in a similar way to the benefit to the brain.

Professor Jari Laukkanen, who led the study, said:

“However, it is known that cardiovascular health affects the brain as well.

The sense of well-being and relaxation experienced during sauna bathing may also play a role.”

The study was published in the journal Age and Ageing (Laukkanen et al., 2016).

image from Shutterstock

The dietary supplement has already been linked to lower depression, treating autism and reducing social anxiety.

For the first time, probiotics have been shown to improve cognition and fight dementia.

Probiotics are live bacteria that can be taken as dietary supplements.

The study showed that just 12 weeks of daily doses of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium bacteria had a beneficial effect.

Elderly people with Alzheimer’s showed improvements in cognition.

Probiotics have already been linked to:

• Stopping sadness becoming depression,
• treating autism,
• and reducing social anxiety.

Professor Mahmoud Salami, a study author, said:

“In a previous study, we showed that probiotic treatment improves the impaired spatial learning and memory in diabetic rats, but this is the first time that probiotic supplementation has been shown to benefit cognition in cognitively impaired humans.”

Probiotic dietary supplement

The study compared two groups of Alzheimer’s patients, who were between 60 and 95 years-old.

Half received milk that was fortified with four probiotic bacteria:

• Lactobacillus acidophilus,
• L. casei,
• L. fermentum,
• and Bifidobacterium bifidum.

The others received just the milk.

Along with improvements in cognition, the researchers also saw improvements in physiological measures, such as triglyceride levels.

Professor Salami said:

“These findings indicate that change in the metabolic adjustments might be a mechanism by which probiotics affect Alzheimer’s and possibly other neurological disorders.

We plan to look at these mechanisms in greater detail in our next study.”

Professor Walter Lukiw, who reviewed the study, said:

“This early study is interesting and important because it provides evidence for gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiome components playing a role in neurological function, and indicates that probiotics can in principle improve human cognition.

This is in line with some of our recent studies which indicate that the GI tract microbiome in Alzheimer’s is significantly altered in composition when compared to age-matched controls, and that both the GI tract and blood-brain barriersbecome significantly more leaky with aging, thus allowing GI tract microbial exudates (e.g. amyloids, lipopolysaccharides, endotoxins and small non-coding RNAs) to access Central Nervous System compartments.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (Akbari et al., 2016).

One more benefit of the natural dietary add-on that may help prevent dementia by clearing waste from the brain.

Omega-3 fatty acids help to clear waste from the brain, new research concludes.

This includes the amyloid peptides that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Omega-3 is found in:

• fish oil
• margarine,
• milk,
• and yoghurt.

The conclusions come from a study on mice in which some were given omega-3 supplementation.

The results showed that the supplementation increased the clearance function of the glymphatic system.

The glymphatic system clears waste from the central nervous system — and mostly operates in the brain.

Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal

“These now-famous fatty acids have been the subject of major studies both in academia and industry.

Just when we thought we had heard everything, here is something new, and it is provocative indeed.

This study should not turn attention away from the roles of these substances in maintaining vascular health, but neither should they restrict our view.

The brain is an extremely vascularized organ, while we might also bear in mind that omega-3 fatty acids may impact neurons, glia, and astrocytes themselves.”

Whether or not omega-3 helps prevent dementia continues to be controversial.

However, omega-3 has been linked to maintaining IQ levels with age and even reducing anxiety.

Other research has suggested that omega-3 needs to be combined with B vitamins to help the body deal with mental decline.

The study was published in the The FASEB Journal (Luo et al., 2016).

Average caffeine intake was enough to reduce dementia risk by 36%.

Caffeine consumption is linked to a 36% reduction in dementia risk, new research finds.

The study on women over 65 found that those who drank the equivalent of 2-3 8-oz cups of coffee each day benefited from the reduced risk.

This amount of caffeine is similar to that in 5-8 8-oz cups of tea and 7-8 12-oz cans of cola.

Professor Ira Driscoll, the study’s lead author, said:

“The mounting evidence of caffeine consumption as a potentially protective factor against cognitive impairment is exciting given that caffeine is also an easily modifiable dietary factor with very few contraindications.

What is unique about this study is that we had an unprecedented opportunity to examine the relationships between caffeine intake and dementia incidence in a large and well-defined, prospectively-studied cohort of women.”

The research involved 6,467 postmenopausal women who were followed for around 10 years.

Over that time 388 received a probable dementia diagnosis.

Those with an average daily caffeine intake of 261mg had a lower rate than those who fell below this average.

The study was published in The Journal of Gerontology: Series A (Driscoll et al., 2016).