Alzheimer's Disease - Dementia

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Alzheimer's Disease - Dementia

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Alzheimer's Disease

"Alzheimer's disease (AD), one form of dementia, is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. It affects memory, thinking, and behavior. Memory impairment is a necessary feature for the diagnosis of this or any type of dementia. Change in one of the following areas must also be present: language, decision-making ability, judgment, attention, and other areas of mental function and personality. The rate of progression is different for each person. If AD develops rapidly, it is likely to continue to progress rapidly. If it has been slow to progress, it will likely continue on a slow course. There are two types of AD -- early onset and late onset. In early onset AD, symptoms first appear before age 60. Early onset AD is much less common, accounting for only 5-10% of cases. However, it tends to progress rapidly. The brain tissue shows "neurofibrillary tangles" (twisted fragments of protein within nerve cells that clog up the cell), "neuritic plaques" (abnormal clusters of dead and dying nerve cells, other brain cells, and protein), and "senile plaques" (areas where products of dying nerve cells have accumulated around protein). Although these changes occur to some extent in all brains with age, there are many more of them in the brains of people with AD."

Highlighted Articles

Education and Alzheimer disease without dementia: support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis. (Neurology. 2007)

"CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of the neuropathologic criteria used, education is predictive of dementia status among individuals with neuropathologic Alzheimer disease. These results support the theory that individuals with greater cognitive reserve, as reflected in years of education, are better able to cope with AD brain pathology without observable deficits in cognition."

Nutritional factors, cognitive decline, and dementia. (Brain Res Bull. 2006)

"Nutritional factors and nutritional deficiencies have been repeatedly associated with cognitive impairment. … Deficiencies of several B vitamins have been associated with cognitive dysfunction in many observational studies. More recently, deficiencies of folate (B(9)) and cobalamine (B(12)) have been studied in relation to hyperhomocysteinemia as potential determinants of cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease (AD). A small number of studies assessed the association between intake of macronutrients and cognitive function or dementia. Among the others, the intake of fatty acids and cholesterol has received particular attention. Although the results are not always consistent, most studies have reported a protective role of dietary intakes of poly- and mono-unsaturated fatty acids against cognitive decline and AD."

Exercise Is Associated with Reduced Risk for Incident Dementia among Persons 65 Years of Age and Older (Annals of Internal Medicine 2006)

"Conclusion: These results suggest that regular exercise is associated with a delay in onset of dementia and Alzheimer disease, further supporting its value for elderly persons."

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Alzheimer's Disease - Dementia

Risk Reduction

NEWS:

Aerobic Exercise May Reduce the Risk of Dementia, Researchers Say

Bilingualism Seems to Boost Brain Power

Could a Diet Help Prevent Alzheimer's?

Eat Fish to Stave Off Alzheimer's Disease “After accounting for these variables, the researchers found that people who ate baked or broiled fish had larger brain volumes in the hippocampus and frontal lobes, areas of the brain that are important in memory and cognition and that are frequently affected in Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, consumption of fish at least once per week was positively associated with gray matter volumes in the hippocampus, precuneus, posterior cingulate, and orbital frontal cortex. Greater hippocampal, orbital frontal cortex, and posterior cingulate volumes in relation to fish consumption reduced the risk for 5-year cognitive decline 5-fold (P = .02). There was no statistically significant relation between the consumption of fried fish and brain structure or cognitive decline.”

Grape Seed May Ward Off Alzheimer's

Lifestyle Changes Might Prevent Millions of Cases of Alzheimer's

Mediterranean Diet in Predementia and Dementia Syndromes. (Curr Alzheimer Res. 2011) “However, high levels of consumption of fats from fish, vegetable oils, non-starchy vegetables, low glycemic fruits, and diet low in foods with added sugars and with moderate wine intake should be encouraged. In fact, this dietary advice is in accordance with recommendations for lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension and might open new ways for the prevention and management of cognitive decline and dementia.”

More Evidence That Exercise May Keep The Brain Sharp “Larson thinks the benefits of exercise on mental ability can accrue even if one starts exercising later in life. "There may be even more benefit, because your state is more risky," he said. "Just keeping up walking for an older person is a huge benefit." Even after dementia has started, exercise can be a benefit, Larson said. "Walking once, twice or four times a week with a caregiver leads to a better outcome and a happier person," he said.”

Music Training May Help Keep Aging Brain Healthy “"Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging," lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy said in a journal news release. Hanna-Pladdy, now an assistant professor in neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, added, "Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older." “

Over Half of Alzheimer's Cases May Be Preventable, Say Researchers“Analyzing data from studies around the world involving hundreds of thousands of participants, Barnes concluded that worldwide, the biggest modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease are, in descending order of magnitude, low education, smoking, physical inactivity, depression, mid-life hypertension, diabetes and mid-life obesity. In the United States, Barnes found that the biggest modifiable risk factors are physical inactivity, depression, smoking, mid-life hypertension, mid-life obesity, low education and diabetes. Together, these risk factors are associated with up to 51 percent of Alzheimer's cases worldwide (17.2 million cases) and up to 54 percent of Alzheimer's cases in the United States (2.9 million cases), according to Barnes.“

ARTICLES:

Exercising the Brain to Avoid Cognitive Decline

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet, Cognitive Decline, and Risk of Dementia (JAMA 2011)

Chronic exercise ameliorates the neuroinflammation in mice carrying NSE/htau23. (Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2011) “These findings suggest that chronic endurance exercise may alleviate neuroinflammation in the Tau pathology of Alzheimer's disease.”

Cognitive and clinical outcomes of homocysteine-lowering B-vitamin treatment in mild cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled trial. (Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2011) “In this small intervention trial, B vitamins appear to slow cognitive and clinical decline in people with MCI, in particular in those with elevated homocysteine. Further trials are needed to see if this treatment will slow or prevent conversion from MCI to dementia.”

Diet and Alzheimer's disease risk factors or prevention: the current evidence. (Expert Rev Neurother. 2011) “In fact, recent prospective studies provided evidence that higher adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet could be associated with slower cognitive decline, reduced risk of progression from MCI to AD, reduced risk of AD and a decreased all-cause mortality in AD patients. These findings suggested that adherence to the MeDi may affect not only the risk of AD, but also of predementia syndromes and their progression to overt dementia. Based on the current evidence concerning these factors, no definitive dietary recommendations are possible. However, following dietary advice for lowering the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, high levels of consumption of fats from fish, vegetable oils, nonstarchy vegetables, low glycemic index fruits and a diet low in foods with added sugars and with moderate wine intake should be encouraged.”

Extended results of the Alzheimer’s disease anti-inflammatory prevention trial (Alzheimer's & Dementia 2011)

Fruit and vegetable intake and cognitive decline in middle-aged men and women: the Doetinchem Cohort Study. (Br J Nutr. 2011) “A high habitual consumption of some specific fruits and vegetables may diminish age-related cognitive decline in middle-aged individuals.”

Green Tea Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate (EGCG) and Other Flavonoids Reduce Alzheimer's Amyloid-Induced Mitochondrial Dysfunction. (J Alzheimers Dis. 2011)

Lifestyle Activities and Memory: Variety May Be the Spice of Life. The Women's Health and Aging Study II. (J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2011) “Greater variety of participation in activities, regardless of cognitive challenge, was associated with an 8 to 11% reduction in the risk of impairment in verbal memory and global cognitive outcomes. Participation in a variety of lifestyle activities was more predictive than frequency or level of cognitive challenge for significant reductions in risk of incident impairment on measures sensitive to cognitive aging and risk for dementia. Our findings offer new perspectives in promoting a diverse repertoire of activities to mitigate age-related cognitive declines.”

Midlife Healthy-Diet Index and Late-Life Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (Dement Geriatr Cogn Dis Extra. 2011)

People at Risk of Alzheimer's May Now Be Able to Delay the Onset of Their First Symptoms

Physical activity and risk of cognitive decline: a meta-analysis of prospective studies (Journal of Internal Medicine 2011) “This is the first meta-analysis to evaluate the role of physical activity on cognitive decline amongst nondemented subjects. The present results suggest a significant and consistent protection for all levels of physical activity against the occurrence of cognitive decline.”

Physical Activity, Diet, and Risk of Alzheimer Disease (JAMA 2011) “In this study, both higher Mediterranean-type diet adherence and higher physical activity were independently associated with reduced risk for AD.”

Physical exercise as a preventive or disease-modifying treatment of dementia and brain aging. (Mayo Clin Proc. 2011)

The Effects of Long-Term Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation on Cognition and Alzheimer's Pathology in Animal Models of Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. (Alzheimers Dis. 2011)

The Role of Phytochemicals in the Treatment and Prevention of Dementia (Drugs & Aging 2011)

Voluntary Wheel Running Reverses Age-Induced Changes in Hippocampal Gene Expression (PLoS One. 2011) “Collectively, findings show that even late-onset exercise may attenuate age-related changes in gene expression and identifies possible pathways through which exercise may exert its beneficial effects.”

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