reliminary research suggests there may be an association between H. pylori and dementia. ^[1] MDLinx spoke with three experts who say while the research is interesting, there is not enough definitive evidence at this stage to change clinical practice. 

The jury is still out on this one since the studies are not of the highest quality and results are not consistent, according to Julie Parsonnet, MD, an infectious diseases clinician and epidemiologist at Stanford University. Some studies show an association, she says, and others do not.

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Dougherty County has the highest rate of Alzheimer’s disease of any county in Georgia and the seventh highest in the United States, according to data from the Alzheimer’s Association.

Fifteen percent of people living in Dougherty County have Alzheimer’s, health experts said.

“So fifteen percent, of course, is quite high, especially being that our patient population, there are a lot of elderly patients,” said Dr. Dominique Mortel, a neurologist at Phoebe. “So we tend to see a lot of patients come here to our neurology clinic concerned about memory issues, especially with fifteen percent of the Dougherty County population being affected.”

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June is Alzheimers & Brain Awareness Month. Dr. Nevin Mathai, Dental Director and spokesperson for Delta Dental of Missouri and DeltaVision drops by StudioSTL to tell us about the link between oral and vision health and the debilitating disease. Research continues to show that oral health, vision health, and brain health are closely connected. Gum disease creates chronic inflammation and allows harmful bacteria to enter the bloodstream, which may reach the brain and accelerate the progression of Alzheimers disease. People with gum disease are 1.5 times more likely to develop Alzheimer`s compared to those with healthy gums. There is also a connection between deteriorating eye health and an increased risk of cognitive decline. For individuals living with cognitive decline, maintaining good vision and oral health can become more difficult. Find out what you can do to help protect your brain and how Delta Dental and Vision can help.

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Magic mushrooms are better known for producing hallucinations and altering people’s sense of reality than for treating brain diseases. Most people associate them with tripping, rather than Alzheimer’s disease.

But a report on an individual patient has prompted scientists to ask whether psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, could have unexpected effects on the ageing brain.

The report describes changes observed in a Japanese-American woman in her 80s with advanced Alzheimer’s disease after she received psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Dementia is a broad term for symptoms that affect memory, thinking and everyday independence. Alzheimer’s disease is its most common cause.

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