Dementia study finds almost 40% of cases could be avoided

(up to two-thirds of people with dementia never receive a diagnosis)

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Large numbers of people would be spared the agony of dementia if depression and diabetes were banished and people ate more fruit and vegetables and spent longer in education, doctors claim today.
Public health initiatives aimed at achieving those results could mean that almost 40% of those who are expected to be affected by the condition in the future avoid it, they say.
A team of British and French researchers has calculated that increasing the involvement of people of all ages in education, especially literacy, would on its own bring about an 18% drop in the number of expected new cases of the disease over the next seven years.
In addition, eliminating depression and diabetes, and improving the general intake of fruit and vegetables, would lead to a further 21% fewer people succumbing to the condition, according to the co-authors, who include Craig Ritchie, a consultant psychiatrist at St Mary's hospital in London.
Some 825,000 people already have dementia in Britain and numbers are expected to exceed 1 million by 2015, given the ageing population and other factors such as rising obesity.
"Reduction in the incidence of dementia over the next seven years would be maximised by the elimination of diabetes and possibly depression. Increasing crystallised intelligence and consumption of fruit and vegetables also seem to have a potentially high impact," the researchers write in the British Medical Journal today. Read more: guardian.co.uk

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Black garlic extract delivers heart health

Frutarom has launched a black garlic extract, which the firm says can be used in dietary supplements and functional foods to deliver garlic’s heart health benefits without its characteristic bad breath effects.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Deep brain stimulation shows promise in fight against Alzheimer’s

(“alive every morning”)

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A team of Toronto scientists is pushing Alzheimer’s research in a radical new direction – testing whether electrodes implanted deep in patients’ brains can jolt their memories into good working order.
The procedure, known as deep brain stimulation, aims to repair faulty nerve circuits with steady electrical pulses from two noodle-thin metal rods buried beneath the cortex. The rods connect to a cable that snakes out of the head and down the neck to a battery-operated regulator embedded below the collarbone. Most often the DBS system is used to treat chronic pain and Parkinson's disease and in research against intractable depression.
But at the University Health Network – after an intense 18-month ethics review – researchers have performed DBS as an experimental brain surgery on six patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The small, world-first trial, published Wednesday in the Annals of Neurology, found DBS is a relatively safe procedure for people with Alzheimer’s, which affects about 500,000 Canadians. But no one knows yet if it will also prove to be an effective one.
Based on results of a standard test known as the Mini-Mental Exam, two patients deteriorated after a year of stimulation, two showed no change, while two improved. The average Alzheimer’s patient declines by three points per year, even with standard medications, which all six patients continued to take during the trial.
Exactly how or why electricity might bolster a brain struck with Alzheimer’s, however, is as mysterious as the disease itself – which after more than 100 years of study, still defies explanation. But the Toronto research team of neurologists, psychiatrists and geriatricians feels the Phase 1 results warrant a Phase 2 study and hopes to find funding to test DBS in another 50 early Alzheimer’s patients. (Patients at the earliest stage of the disease seemed to respond best to DBS in the trial.) More: theglobeandmail.com

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Chili compound to lower blood pressure

A new study has linked frequent intake of capsaicin to a reduction in blood pressure, the first time that the effect has been observed for long-term use. Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Can we simply delay Alzheimer's?

(risk factors: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking and excessive alcohol use)

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Before you spend your money on an exotic herb or a pricey electronic brain game to preserve your mind, consider this: No one has found a sure-fire way to prevent Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive decline.
There are "so many, many products that people are consuming in the name of prevention of Alzheimer's disease and prevention of mild cognitive decline," from herbal products like Ginkgo biloba to vitamins, said Dr. Martha L. Daviglus, a professor of preventive medicine and medicine at Northwestern University. However, "for now, we don't see any association between those vitamins and certain kinds of foods or pills that are available in the market and the prevention" of these problems. That was the gist of a consensus statement released earlier this year by an independent panel assembled for a National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science Conference. The report has not been universally embraced, especially by those who think lifestyle changes could have value.
The 15-member panel, chaired by Daviglus, did not find enough consistent evidence to recommend the use of pharmaceuticals or dietary supplements to prevent Alzheimer's disease or cognitive decline. Ditto for dietary measures, such as omega-3 fatty acids from fish, or a Mediterranean-style diet; exercise; and being socially or cognitively engaged. Future research might make a difference, however, and the panel is encouraging it. "We recognize that a large amount of promising research is under way," according to the panel's report. More: lansingstatejournal.com

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Olive oil extract shows brain protecting benefits

An olive extract rich in hydroxytyrosol may protect neurons in the brain from the normal deterioration associated with aging, suggests a new study.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Cardiac dysfunction, weak heart and brain dysfunction

(Eat well, exercise regularly, and take medicines)

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Cardiac index — the measure of how well the heart is pumping blood to the brain and the rest of the body — may be an indicator of a person's risk for developing dementia in the future.

A study in this week's Circulation suggests cardiac index is linked to brain size, even in people without heart disease, a known risk factor for dementia.

"The primary finding is that cardiac index is associated with brain volume. Participants with low cardiac index and low normal values had smaller brains, equivalent to about two years of brain aging compared to those with high cardiac index," says study author Angela Jefferson, associate professor of neurology at the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Boston University School of Medicine.

The study evaluated data from 1,504 participants in the Framingham Offspring Cohort, an arm of the larger Framingham Heart Study. Information was collected from neuropsychological tests, brain and cardiac MRI and lab reports.

Doctors have long known that the heart and brain are intertwined and that heart disease is a risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer's, says Richard Lipton, an attending neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center and professor of neurology at the Einstein College of Medicine in New York. But he says these results take into account non-heart patients, too.

"These are not people with heart disease, so that's what makes it interesting," Lipton says. Will the results translate into public-health recommendations? "I'm not entirely sure yet. But I think sometimes we give drugs that reduce high blood pressure, that (also) reduce cardiac index, and maybe people will begin to think twice about that," he says. More: usatoday.com

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Early-life cholesterol increases future heart disease risk

Young adults with high cholesterol levels are at a greater risk of developing heart conditions in later life, reveals a 20-year study that claims to be the first of its kind to confirm the long-term link. Read more: nutraingredients.com

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The difference between Alzheimer's and dementia 

( early warning signs )

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Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are two of the greatest fears many people have as they face old age - and the two terms are often used interchangeably, or confusingly. Technically, the difference between Alzheimer's and dementia is that dementia is a term for the deterioration or progressive impairment of mental capacity, and Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common causes of dementia. Dementia is also a symptom of a number of other conditions, many of them associated with aging.
Dementia refers to the abnormal deterioration in mental function, beyond what is normally expected from aging. The most well-known and recognizable consequence of dementia is serious and progressive memory loss, but the term refers to a more general loss of cognitive function, as well. Dementia is most common among the elderly. In addition to being a symptom of Alzheimer's disease, it can also result in aging patients as a result of vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's disease, and a number of other less common conditions.
Non-elderly adults, and particularly those below 40 or 50, are especially unlikely to develop dementia, especially as a result of the conditions described above, which are normally associated with aging. However, it can develop at a younger age as a result of a brain injury, or as a result of some much more rare conditions. These include Huntington's disease, a hereditary disorder. In addition, very severe and sudden dementia is also the stereotypical symptom of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, the human variant of mad cow disease.
However, the most common cause of dementia, particularly in elderly populations, is Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is a progressive dementia which usually first becomes noticeable through memory impairment, beginning with the deterioration of new and short-term memory and then extending to long-term memory and control over basic bodily functions. Despite many years of research, medical researchers still know frustratingly little about the causes or potential treatments of Alzheimer's. What they do know is that it is associated with the development of plaque formations and tangled neurons within the brain. Several medications are now used to restrict the disease's symptoms and potentially slow its progression, although there is not yet a way to stop the disease entirely or to truly reverse damage once it has been done. More: helium.com

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Study supports prostate cancer benefits of tocotrienols

The link between Vitamin E and cancer benefits has received extra backing from a new study, which found that a mix of different forms of the vitamin helped prevent prostate tumor growth in mice.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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How individual connections between brain cells remain diverse

(GABA makes synapse more liable)

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Reported in the science journal Neuron, a new study led by Dr. Inna Slutsky of the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University describes what makes some memories stick.
The key is GABA (γ-Aminobutyric acid), a natural molecule that occurs in the brain, which could be the main factor in regulating how many new memories we can generate, the new study has found. The understanding of these mechanisms might lead to the development of new memory enhancers and new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Memories, Dr. Slutsky says, are stored in synaptic connections between neurons in our brain. In the past, other teams, including her own, have demonstrated that the strength of individual synapses is highly variable, even at the single neuron level. This variability ultimately determines if and how new memories are stored, and the key to this variability is GABA, a naturally-occurring chemical found in the brain.

In the hippocampus, one of the main areas of the brain involved in learning and memory, the strength of neuronal connections is known to be highly variable. Some neurons are tightly connected to others, while some appear to be "lone rangers." The new paper, which examines individual synapses in the hippocampus, demonstrates that this process is regulated by GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in our brain. "We determined that variations in the local level of GABA in the vicinity of individual synapses are responsible for the differences or 'heterogeneity' of synaptic strength. And this heterogeneity may facilitate the formation of new memories," Dr. Slutsky explains. More: sciencedaily.com

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EFSA rejects soy protein-cholesterol health claim

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a negative opinion to a health claim submission linking soy protein and reduced LDL cholesterol. Read more: nutraingredients.com

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A cure for Alzheimer’s is no longer a dream

(develop treatments for cognitive disorders)

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Researchers at the University of Lethbridge have confirmed a medical breakthrough, proving therapy can restore mammals’ memory power.
Scientists at the university’s Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience said Friday they’ve replicated the gradual memory loss that afflicts millions of seniors, using standard laboratory rats to demonstrate the loss. But then, said lead researcher Robert Sutherland, they succeeded in reversing that loss through a combination of medication and training.
“The memory was totally restored,” he said. Damaged cells recovered.
While work remains before the approach can be tested in humans, Sutherland predicted this discovery could provide a remedy for an age-related disease that’s already costing billions of dollars — and destroying many seniors’ quality of life.
“This is a very exciting step.”
Alzheimer’s disease, caused by the gradual death of cells in the cerebral cortex, is diagnosed in thousands of Canadians every year.
“Without fundamental scientific advances like ours, it is certain that the burdens will grow dramatically,” he said. “It is urgent that we find ways of preventing, reversing and repairing injured brains.”
The Lethbridge research team’s findings, he added, are “a significant advance in that direction.” More: lethbridgeherald.com

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Yogurt proteins could stabilize omega-3 enrichment

New research suggests that naturally occurring antioxidant peptides could be used to prevent oxidation of omega-3 in functional foods.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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