Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

First study to demonstrate IVIg effective longer than a year

A purified mixture of human antibodies called intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) provides lasting benefits to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to researchers at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

25 Jul 2006

Endogenous sex hormones, cognitive decline and future dementia in old men

A prospective population-based study has found that higher estrogen levels in older men are associated with an increased risk of dementia. By contrast, levels of testosterone were not associated with cognitive decline.

24 Jul 2006

Pig cell implants show potential for treatment of stroke, Huntington's disease

A review of accumulated evidence on the use of porcine brain choroid plexus (CP) cells published in the July issue of Xenotransplantation highlights that these cells have the potential to treat acute and chronic brain disease.

24 Jul 2006

Active mind and body slows Alzheimer's progression

Researchers have uncovered the pathways behind the protection offered by environmental stimulation in Alzheimer's disease, further confirming that enhanced mental and physical activity slows neurological decline.

24 Jul 2006

Long term ibuprofen therapy given after brain injury worsens cognitive abilities

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that chronic ibuprofen therapy given after brain injury worsens cognitive abilities.

21 Jul 2006

Giving up driving may be fast lane to aged care

Researchers have found that elders who stay behind the wheel are less likely to enter nursing homes or assisted living centers than those who have never driven or who have given up driving altogether.

21 Jul 2006

New 'patch' drug therapy for Alzheimer's has fewer side effects

Alzheimer's, is the most common form of dementia and affects as many as 15 million people worldwide.

20 Jul 2006

Bush adopts the so-called moral high ground and chooses to ignore scientific advice

The American President George W. Bush has used his presidential veto for the first time to block further federal taxpayers money from being used for embryonic stem-cell research.

20 Jul 2006

Little evidence that wandering prevention works in dementia

Everything from multicolored lights to garden walks has been suggested as ways to keep people with dementia from wandering, but there is little evidence to show that any of these interventions work, according to a new analysis.

19 Jul 2006

Researchers find protein associated with brain cell death

Neuroscientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found evidence of which protein in the brain's immune cells triggers a cascade of reactions that produces unregulated free radical production that eventually leads to the neural cell death found in Alzheimer's disease.

19 Jul 2006

Antibodies show promise in treating Alzheimer's

Researchers say infusing human antibodies into people with Alzheimer's disease appears to help stop the disease from getting worse and may even help the patients improve.

19 Jul 2006

Donepezil slows brain shrinkage in some patients with mild cognitive impairment

According to a new study, the drug donepezil measurably slows the rate of brain shrinkage in some patients with mild cognitive impairment, a pre-Alzheimer's disease condition. The shrinkage was measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

18 Jul 2006

Executive function and Alzheimer's disease

A new Mayo Clinic study finds that after memory begins to decline, executive function is the next brain function to deteriorate in the progression from mild cognitive impairment, a pre-Alzheimer's disease condition, to Alzheimer's disease

18 Jul 2006

New hope for women with Alzheimer's disease

Leuprolide acetate helps women with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease maintain functional capabilities for a longer period of time, according to data presented Monday by Voyager Pharmaceutical Corporation.

18 Jul 2006

Eicosanoids and inflammatory response

Revolutionary new results concerning substances that play major roles in the inflammatory response have been published in the American scientific journal PNAS in two articles from Karolinska Institutet.

18 Jul 2006

Alzheimer's disease linked to raised blood sugar levels

Researchers at an Alzheimer's Conference in Spain have come up with more information on the disease and just who amongst the population is most likely to get it.

17 Jul 2006

New genetic clues to dementia with Lewy bodies

Researchers have found that genetic alterations originally identified in people suffering from a rare disease may also be an important risk factor for the second most common form of dementia among the elderly.

17 Jul 2006

Pioglitazone shows promise in treating Alzheimer's

Treatment of high blood sugar may have a scientific connection to memory loss that could, one day, benefit millions of people with Alzheimer's Disease, which affects up to 4.5 million older Americans, bringing with it impaired thinking and memory.

17 Jul 2006

Weight loss and dementia in women

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that women who develop dementia experience a decline in weight as many as 10 years prior to the onset of memory loss, compared to peers who do not develop dementia.

17 Jul 2006