Category: Dementia

Test identifies smaller brain volume and problems with thinking.

A simple saliva test could help identify thinking problems in older people, a new study finds.

The study found a connection between the stress hormone cortisol and thinking skills.

Higher cortisol levels in the evening were linked to worse thinking skills and smaller brain volumes.

Dr Lenore J. Launer, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Studies have shown that depression increases the risk for dementia, but we don’t know much about how this relationship occurs.

High levels of the stress hormone cortisol have been found in people with depression, and the theory is that cortisol has a toxic effect on the hippocampus area of the brain, which plays an important role in memory.”

The study included data from 4,244 people who did not have dementia.

Dr Launer said:

“Since this study just looked at a snapshot in time, we don’t know which came first: the high levels of cortisol or the loss of brain volume.

It’s possible that the loss of brain volume that can occur with aging leads to a lesser ability of the brain to stop the effects of cortisol, which in turn leads to further loss of brain cells.

Understanding these relationships may help us develop strategies to reduce the effects of cortisol on the brain and thinking skills.”

The research was published in the journal Neurology (Mirjam et al., 2015).

Thinking image from Shutterstock

Given the power of modern medicine, why have brain diseases increased by four times?

Rates of brain diseases are increasing at almost epidemic rates, especially in the US, a new study reports.

Researchers have compared figures for neurological disease from 1989 with those from 2010 across 21 Western countries.

They found that dementia is starting, on average, a decade earlier in 2010 than it was in 1989.

In the US, the figures are particularly worrying.

Women over 75 are suffering five times as many neurological deaths as they were two decades ago.

The same comparison for men over 75 shows a three-fold increase in neurological deaths.

Professor Colin Pritchard, who led the study, said:

“The rate of increase in such a short time suggests a silent or even a ‘hidden’ epidemic, in which environmental factors must play a major part, not just aging.

Modern living produces multi-interactional environmental pollution but the changes in human morbidity, including neurological disease is remarkable and points to environmental influences.”

Professor Pritchard continued:

“In part, some of the results are explained by more effective treatments for cancer and heart disease, with advances in medicine making such physical illnesses easier to treat, whilst there have been less advances in the treatment of neurological conditions.

Crucially it is not just because people are living longer to get diseases they previously would not have lived long enough to develop but older people are developing neurological disease more than ever before.

The environmental changes in the last 20 years have seen increases in the human environment of petro-chemicals — air transport- quadrupling of motor vehicles, insecticides and rises in background electro-magnetic-field, and so on.

These results will not be welcome news as there are many with short-term vested interests that will want to ignore them.

It is not that we want to stop the modern world but rather make it safer.

Essentially, it is time for us to wake up and realize that a major problem we now face is unprecedented levels of neurological disease, not just the earlier dementias and thinking of the USA — `when America sneezes, Europe gets cold a decade later.”

The study was published in the journal Surgical Neurology International (Pritchard & Rosenorn-Lanng, 2015).

Brain image from Shutterstock

Vessels discovered in the brain that were thought not to exist — could revolutionise study of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist, new research reports.

The finding means the textbooks will have to be rewritten.

Discovery of the vessels may also revolutionise the study of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and autism.

Professor Jonathan Kipnis, who led the research, was initially sceptical about the results:

“I really did not believe there are structures in the body that we are not aware of.

I thought the body was mapped.

I thought that these discoveries ended somewhere around the middle of the last century.

But apparently they have not.”

The vessels are located in the meninges — the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.

The vessels run near major blood vessels, which partly explains why they have been so difficult to find.

The left-hand image below shows the old map of the lymphatic system and the updated version is on the right.

The discovery will likely have profound implications for how scientists study the neuro-immune system, Professor Kipnis said:

“Instead of asking, ‘How do we study the immune response of the brain?’ ‘Why do multiple sclerosis patients have the immune attacks?’ now we can approach this mechanistically.

Because the brain is like every other tissue connected to the peripheral immune system through meningeal lymphatic vessels.

It changes entirely the way we perceive the neuro-immune interaction.

We always perceived it before as something esoteric that can’t be studied.

But now we can ask mechanistic questions.

We believe that for every neurological disease that has an immune component to it, these vessels may play a major role.

Hard to imagine that these vessels would not be involved in a [neurological] disease with an immune component.

In Alzheimer’s, there are accumulations of big protein chunks in the brain.

We think they may be accumulating in the brain because they’re not being efficiently removed by these vessels.”

The study was published in the journal Nature (Louveau et al., 2015).

Network brain image from Shutterstock and lympatic system image from University of Virginia Health System

How coffee intake affects the chance of developing mild cognitive impairment.

Drinking one or two cups of coffee a day can protect the brain against a precursor to dementia, a new study finds.

More coffee, though, does not lead to a higher neuro-protective effect.

In fact, the study found that people who increased their consumption by a cup or two had twice the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

MCI is a common precursor to developing forms of dementia, like Alzheimer’s disease.

Symptoms of MCI include minor memory problems and slowed thinking and judgement.

The Italian study of 1,445 people also found that people not drinking coffee were at higher risk than those who drank moderate amounts.

The study’s authors write:

“These findings from the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging suggested that cognitively normal older individuals who never or rarely consumed coffee and those who increased their coffee consumption habits had a higher risk of developing MCI.

Therefore, moderate and regular coffee consumption may have neuroprotective effects also against MCI confirming previous studies on the long-term protective effects of coffee, tea, or caffeine consumption and plasma levels of caffeine against cognitive decline and dementia,”

Participants in the study were aged 65 to 84-years-old.

They were followed up over an average of 3.5 years to see if they had developed any thinking problems.

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

Image credit: Eric

Michael J Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s, is an advocate for research into the disease.

Drugs currently used to treat malaria could also provide a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, a new study reports.

Parkinson’s disease is caused by a loss of cells in part of the brain called the substantia nigra.

This leads to a reduction in the production of a neurotransmitter called dopamine.

Since dopamine helps regulate movement, Parkinson’s causes tremors and involuntary movements, as well as stiff and inflexible muscles, among other symptoms.

The new research, carried out by researchers in the US and Singapore, could be a breakthrough.

Dr Yoon Ho Sup, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Our discovery brings hope for the millions of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, as the drugs that we have found to have worked in the laboratory tests have already been used to treat malaria in patients for decades.

Our research also shows that existing drugs can be repurposed to treat other diseases and once several potential drugs are found, we can redesign them to be more effective in combating their targeted diseases while reducing the side effects.”

The two anti-malaria drugs, Chloroquine and Amodiaquine, were among around 1,000 tested.

Rats with Parkinson’s showed improvements in their behaviour and no signs of the disease after being treated with the drug.

Professor Kwang-Soo Kim, another of the study’s authors, and expert on Parkinsons’, explained some of the problems with existing treatments:

“…[existing] pharmacological and surgical treatments address the patient’s symptoms, such as to improve mobility functions in the early stages of the disease, but the treatments cannot slow down or stop the disease process.

Backed by various lines of scientific evidence, Nurr1 is known to be a potential drug target to treat Parkinson’s.

Despite great efforts from pharmaceutical companies and academia, no one has managed to find a molecule which can directly bind to it and activate it, except for us.”

It is hoped these drugs can be modified to provide a better treatment for Parkinson’s than those that already exist.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Kim et al., 2015).

Michael J Fox image from Shutterstock 

Tests predict ten-fold increase in Alzheimer’s risk 18 years in advance.

Low scores on memory and thinking tests could signal Alzheimer’s 18 years in advance, a new study finds.

Dr Kumar B. Rajan, the study’s lead author, said:

“The changes in thinking and memory that precede obvious symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease begin decades before.

While we cannot currently detect such changes in individuals at risk, we were able to observe them among a group of individuals who eventually developed dementia due to Alzheimer’s.”

In the study, over two thousand people from Chicago were given tests of memory and thinking every three years over 18 years.

Around one in five of the participants, whose average age was 73, developed the disease during the study.

Lower scores on the tests predicted a ten-fold increase in the risk of developing the disease.

Relatively small decreases in performance on the test were linked to large increases in Alzheimer’s risk.

Dr Rajan said:

“A general current concept is that in development of Alzheimer’s disease, certain physical and biologic changes precede memory and thinking impairment.

If this is so, then these underlying processes may have a very long duration.

Efforts to successfully prevent the disease may well require a better understanding of these processes near middle age.”

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Rajan et al., 2015).

Alzheimer’s photo from Shutterstock

How Alzheimer’s could be linked to sleep quality.

Poor sleep is a channel through which Alzheimer’s disease can be triggered, a new study finds.

Professor Matthew Walker, one of the neuroscientist who authored the study, said:

“This discovery offers hope.

Sleep could be a novel therapeutic target for fighting back against memory impairment in older adults and even those with dementia.”

The study is one of the first to look at human rather than animal subjects in this way.

Professor William Jagust, a leading expert on Alzheimer’s disease who co-led the study, said:

“Over the past few years, the links between sleep, beta-amyloid, memory, and Alzheimer’s disease have been growing stronger.

Our study shows that this beta-amyloid deposition may lead to a vicious cycle in which sleep is further disturbed and memory impaired.”

For the research, 26 older people without dementia were given memory tests and had their brains scanned before and after sleep.

Professor Walker explained:

“The more you remember following a good night of sleep, the less you depend on the hippocampus and the more you use the cortex.

It’s the equivalent of retrieving files from the safe storage site of your computer’s hard drive, rather than the temporary storage of a USB stick.

The more beta-amyloid you have in certain parts of your brain, the less deep sleep you get and, consequently, the worse your memory.

Additionally, the less deep sleep you have, the less effective you are at clearing out this bad protein.

It’s a vicious cycle.

But we don’t yet know which of these two factors — the bad sleep or the bad protein — initially begins this cycle. Which one is the finger that flicks the first domino, triggering the cascade?”

Dr Bryce Mander, study’s lead author, said:

“The data we’ve collected are very suggestive that there’s a causal link.

If we intervene to improve sleep, perhaps we can break that causal chain.”

This ties in with evidence of how sleep fights toxins in the brain.

Professor Walker said:

“Sleep is helping wash away toxic proteins at night, preventing them from building up and from potentially destroying brain cells,.

It’s providing a power cleanse for the brain.

The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience (Walker et al., 2015).

Alzheimer’s photo from Shutterstock

How to reduce the risk of dementia, what causes it and a potential miracle cure.

Here are eight fascinating new studies on dementia and it’s most common form, Alzheimer’s disease.

Below you can find out what causes dementia, how the risk can be reduced and the latest technologies being used in the fight against it.

(Click the links for longer descriptions of the studies.)

How to reduce the risk

Some of the factors linked to a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s are well-known.

Eating the right diet, doing some exercise, getting checked out by a doctor and also giving the brain a workout, are all likely to be effective.

A recent study found impressive cognitive gains for people doing all four.

For specific activities linked to a lower risk, why not try computer use, as well as socialising and doing arts and crafts.

A new study has found that doing these in middle age may help preserve memory in later years.

Obesity on its own, though, does not seem to be linked to dementia — indeed, it may even reduce the risk.

Surprisingly, four very common medicines have also been linked to dementia risk.

They are:

1. Doxepin (Sinequan) – an older antidepressant.
2. Chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton) – an antihistamine used to treat hayfever.
3. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) – another antihistamine often used to treat hayfever and sometimes used to aid sleep.
4. Oxybutynin (Ditropan) – for bladder control.

The MIND diet

For more specific advice about what to eat and what to avoid, check out the recent ‘MIND diet’ study.

The diet could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by over 50%.

Along with many of the usual suspects, the researchers identified one specific food which is particularly potent for protecting the brain: blueberries.

Another key ingredient, according to nutritional epidemiologists, is vitamin K, which is contained in leafy vegetables.

Older adults in the study who ate just two servings of leafy vegetables each day kept their brains around eleven years younger.

The real cause of Alzheimer’s?

There has been a lot of scientific debate just recently about what causes Alzheimer’s.

One recent study claimed that amyloid, a toxic protein frequently linked to Alzheimer’s may not be the main driver of the disease after all.

The ‘real’ cause of Alzheimer’s is a dysfunctional ‘tau’ protein, the scientists claimed.

If this turns out to be true, that will mean a lot of scientific work has been in vain.

But, hey, that’s science for you — research can go down loads of blind alleys before it finds a way through.

A miracle cure?

My award for best recent miracle cure goes to Australian scientists who have found a potential Alzheimer’s treatment that can restore memory using ultrasound technology.

The technique — which has been successfully tested on mice — does not involve drugs, but high frequency sound waves.

Professor Jürgen Götz, the director of the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research in Australia, and one of the study’s authors, said:

“We’re extremely excited by this innovation of treating Alzheimer’s without using drug therapeutics.

The ultrasound waves oscillate tremendously quickly, activating microglial cells that digest and remove the amyloid plaques that destroy brain synapses.”

Given that some scientists are questioning if amyloid is the real culprit, this miracle cure might not be so hot after all.

Runner-up in the miracle cure category goes to the life-extending protein called ‘klotho’.

A mouse study has found it may increase learning and memory and ward off Alzheimer’s.

Dr Dena Dubal, who led the study, said:

“It’s remarkable that we can improve cognition in a diseased brain despite the fact that it’s riddled with toxins.

In addition to making healthy mice smarter, we can make the brain resistant to Alzheimer-related toxicity.

Without having to target the complex disease itself, we can provide greater resilience and boost brain functions.”

Alzheimer’s photo from Shutterstock

New research links living near these to a 46% increase in stroke risk.

Living further away from major roadways has been linked to better brain health by new research.

Long-term exposure to even moderate levels of air pollution, the study found, is bad for the brain.

Air pollution may cause poor cognitive function and ‘silent strokes’, which have been linked to dementia.

The study also found that people exposed to more air pollution had smaller brains.

Dr Elissa Wilker, an epidemiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who led the study, said:

“This is one of the first studies to look at the relationship between ambient air pollution and brain structure.

Our findings suggest that air pollution is associated with insidious effects on structural brain aging, even in dementia- and stroke-free individuals.”

The study looked at how far people lived from the nearest roadway.

It also used satellite imagery to work out their average exposure to fine particulate matter.

All the participants in the study were over 60 and free from dementia and stroke.

Professor Sudha Seshadri, a neurologist at Boston University School of Medicine and one of the study’s authors, explained the results:

“This study shows that for a 2 microgram per cubic meter of air (μg/m3) increase in PM2.5 [particular matter bigger than 2.5 millionths of a meter], a range commonly observed across major US cities, on average participants who lived in more polluted areas had the brain volume of someone a year older than participants who lived in less polluted areas.

They also had a 46 percent higher risk of silent strokes on MRI.

This is concerning since we know that silent strokes increase the risk of overt strokes and of developing dementia, walking problems and depression.

We now plan to look at more the impact of air pollution over a longer period, its effect on more sensitive MRI measures, on brain shrinkage over time, and other risks including of stroke and dementia.”

Particles of pollution can travel deep into the lungs and have been linked to strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.

Dr Elissa Wilker said:

“These results are an important step in helping us learn what is going on in the brain.

The mechanisms through which air pollution may affect brain aging remain unclear, but systemic inflammation resulting from the deposit of fine particles in the lungs is likely important.”

The study was published in the journal Stroke (Wilker et al., 2015).

Tree brain image from Shutterstock