How to fight Alzheimer’s

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Alzheimer’s disease represents a significant threat to the security and enjoyment of our retirement years.According to some experts, by 2050 the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s could be as high as 10 million, and the related health care costs may exceed $1 trillion per year.

But lately there’s been good news in the fight against this deadly disease. Earlier this week, the Obama administration announced a plan to find effective treatments by 2025 and to improve care for Alzheimer’s sufferers. The White House also said this month that it would devote $50 million in 2012 to Alzheimer’s research and seek an additional $80 million in funding for fiscal 2013.

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Alzheimer’s Disease: A Story About Caregivers

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For people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the disease is a difficult whirlwind of emotions. The mental strain on their loved ones around them, however, is especially daunting as well.

Every day, the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s increases. In West Virginia, over 44,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease.

But this is not about the numbers, or the symptoms. It’s about the impact on not only those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but also their loved ones, who often take on the role as their caregiver.

“My mom is usually very happy, and cheerful, and up, and has a lot of good memories, and I usually just try to focus on the good things,” said Marti Shamberger, whose mother suffers from dementia.

Shamberger has a full time job, a family with two kids, and a seat on Morgantown City Council. She never thought she’d be watching her mother suffer from dementia, with Shamberger and her father both taking on dual roles as caregiver. “You know, sometimes I feel pretty overwhelmed,” Shamberger said. “But I’ve learned when people say ‘What can I do to help you?’ to take them up on it.”

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Alzheimer’s the Musical – a night to remember!

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Three actors in their 60s are proving that it’s never too late to make your big break.

They’ve made an international sensation out of the surprise of hit of Adelaide’s Fringe Festival, Alzheimer’s the Musical – a night to remember!

The production went on to the Edinburgh Festival where it had a sell-out season.

It’s now returned to the Adelaide Fringe, and Alzheimer’s Australia is supporting the show, saying laughter can indeed be the best medicine, especially for stressed carers and relatives of people with the disease.

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How significant are developments in making Alzheimer’s brain cells in the lab?

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Dementia has been described as a “time bomb” in society. As more people are living longer, more are being affected by the illness which slowly but surely annihilates brain function.

More than 750,000 people in the UK already have dementia, forecasts say there will be one million dementia patients by 2021 and 1.5 million by 2051. The cost to health services and the economy is already put at more than £20bn each year.

However, the scale of the problem is in stark contrast to the level of understanding. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, yet the cause is unknown and there is no cure.

When it comes to studying dementia you cannot simply take samples of brain tissue from patients to understand what is going on or to test treatments. Research requires good “models” of the disease instead, something many scientists would argue are not good enough.

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Flu may boost Alzheimer’s risk, research suggests

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When we come down with the flu, we might think the worst is over after a week of a sore throat and body aches. But such viral infections may have lasting, unseen effects on the brain, emerging research suggests.

Viruses such as influenza and herpes may leave brain cells vulnerable to degeneration later in life, and increase the risk of developing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, research suggests. That’s because these the viruses can enter the brain and trigger an immune response — inflammation — which can damage brain cells.

Viruses and other sources of inflammation “may be initiating factors in some of the most common neurological diseases,” said Dr. Ole Isacson, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, who discussed the topic in an article published today (Feb. 15) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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Alzheimer’s: Trouble sleeping could affect memory later on, study finds

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People who have trouble sleeping may be at higher risk of developing memory problems, new research shows.

People who woke frequently in the night had a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to work to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in New Orleans in April.

Other research has shown a link between impaired sleep and multiple-personality disorder, as well as other forms of dissociation.

And research in mice has shown that disrupted sleep can actually cause an increase in the buildup of amyloid plaque in the brain — buildup that happens years before any outward symptoms of Alzheimer’s occur.

To see whether disrupted sleep affected humans, the researchers took 100 patients, half of whom had a family history of Alzheimer’s, and monitored their sleep patterns for 14 days. They found that even though participants spent about eight hours in bed, on average, they spent only about 6.5 hours sleeping, because they woke up repeatedly during the night.

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