Publications - Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia

Even with insurance, getting mental health treatment is a struggle in Mass., study says, by Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, Dec 11 2018.

“Massachusetts residents who need health care are colliding with a hard reality: Having medical insurance doesn’t guarantee you can get treatment, particularly for psychiatric problems. More than half of adults who sought mental health or addiction treatment in recent months had difficulty getting that care, according to a survey of 2,201 residents by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation in Boston...The obstacle wasn’t a lack of insurance; the vast majority of patients were insured. Rather, the problem was that providers either did not accept their insurance or their practices were closed to new patients. ”

Pregnancy high blood pressure linked to dementia decades later, by Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, Reuters, Nov 1 2018.

“Pregnant women who develop preeclampsia, a condition involving dangerously high blood pressure, have more than three times higher risk of dementia later in life than women who don’t have this pregnancy complication, researchers say...Women with a preeclampsia history had about twice the risk of early-onset dementia compared with no history. They also had a 50 percent higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and a 40 percent higher risk of other, nonspecific dementias. A history of recurrent preeclampsia in more than one pregnancy was even more strongly associated with dementia than when it occurred in just a single pregnancy. ”

Heart-healthy lifestyle in old age tied to lower dementia risk, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, Aug 22 2018.

“Older adults who take care of their heart may be less likely to develop dementia than people who don’t focus on heart health, a French study suggests. Researchers focused on seven recommendations from the American Heart Association (AHA) for optimal cardiovascular health: not smoking; regularly exercising; routinely eating fish, fruits, and vegetables; avoiding excess weight; and keeping blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels within a healthy range. For an average of 8.5 years, they followed 6,626 people age 65 or older who didn’t have dementia at the start. During the study...about 11 percent, developed dementia. With each additional heart-healthy recommendation they met, people were 10 percent less likely to develop dementia, researchers found. ”

Experimental Alzheimer's drug stirs hope after early trials, by Sandee LaMotte, CNN, Jul 26 2018.

“After a series of prominent failures, there's reason to be hopeful in the search for a drug to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Results of an early trial of an experimental drug showed that it improved cognition and reduced clinical signs of Alzheimer's in the brains of study participants, and experts are "cautiously optimistic" that the results will be duplicated in future clinical trials. The drug, an antibody called BAN2401, not only reduced the formulation of new beta amyloid clusters in the brain, it reduced existing clusters by 70% on average, American biotechnology company Biogen and Japanese drugmaker Eisai announced Wednesday. The buildup of beta amyloid in the brain is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. ”

Women bear Alzheimer's burden; researchers are trying to discover why, by Sandee LaMotte, CNN, Jul 23 2018.

“At the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Chicago this week, researchers are exploring biological and social differences that might explain why more women than men develop Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. A study to be presented at the conference found a link between a lower risk for dementia and the number of births a woman has. Women with three or more children had a 12% lower risk of developing cognitive issues than a woman with only one child, according to initial results of the study of nearly 15,000 women. Pregnancy failures, however, increased a woman's risk, according to the Kaiser Permanente study. Compared with women who never lost a pregnancy, women with three or more miscarriages had a 47% higher risk for dementia. ”

Blood pressure linked to lesions, signs of Alzheimer's in autopsied brains, by Susan Scutti, CNN, Jul 12 2018.

“Older people with higher-than-average blood pressure have more markers of brain disease than their average-pressure peers, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology...The research found that 'the higher the average blood pressure, the more likely a person was to have brain lesions,' Arvanitakis said. For example, a systolic blood pressure of 147 translated to a 46% increased risk of having one or more brain lesions, specifically infarcts, the analysis showed...People with higher-than-average diastolic pressure (79, for example, compared with the group average of 71) had a 28% greater risk of one or more lesions, the researchers found. ”

Anxiety in middle age linked to dementia later, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, Apr 30 2018.

“People with moderate to severe anxiety in middle age may be more likely to develop dementia as they get older, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data from four previously published studies that tracked a total of almost 30,000 people for at least a decade. In each of the smaller studies, there was a clear connection between anxiety in midlife and dementia later on, researchers report in BMJ Open. ”

Traumatic Brain Injuries Are Tied to Dementia, by Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, Apr 10 2018.

“In the largest study of its kind, researchers have found that traumatic brain injury is associated with an increased risk of dementia. The risk of dementia was highest among people who had suffered multiple T.B.I.s. But even a single mild T.B.I. was tied to an increased risk of dementia...they found that compared with people who had never had a T.B.I., those who had had any were at a 24 percent increased risk for dementia, and those who had had five or more had nearly triple the risk. ”

Addressing Depression Symptoms May Improve Memory & Cognition, by Rick Nauert, PhD, Psych Central, Mar 28 2018.

“New research suggests that evaluation and treatment of symptoms of depressionmay improve or maintain cognitive functioning in some older patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers said that individuals with worse depression and mood symptoms are more likely to develop MCI and to progress from MCI to dementia...'The implication is that successfully identifying and providing effective treatment for these neuropsychiatric symptoms, including depression, may potentially improve or maintain cognitive functioning in many older adults,' explained corresponding author Robert Stern, Ph.D. ”

Aerobic exercise slows cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, by Mary Gillis, Reuters, Feb 27 2018.

“Cardiovascular exercise training may help slow the decline in brain function seen in Alzheimer’s patients, a new review of past research suggests...Aerobic exercises include brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling and other activities that boost the heart rate and strengthen the heart and lungs...Results indicated that exercise - specifically, cardiovascular exercise - had a strong favorable impact, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 'We found a statistically significant increase in cognitive function that favored the groups receiving the exercise interventions compared to the non-exercise control groups,' lead study author Gregory Panza, from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, told Reuters Health by email...This study is the first to suggest that aerobic exercise may be more effective than other types of exercise when the goal is to preserve the cognitive health of older adults at risk of or with Alzheimer’s disease, Panza said. ”

Childhood heart defects tied to early dementia, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, Feb 12 2018.

“People who survive childhood heart defects may have an increased risk of developing dementia before age 65, a Danish study suggests...Compared to people born with normal hearts, adult survivors of childhood heart defects were more than twice as likely to develop so-called early-onset dementia by age 65, the current study found. These survivors were also 30 percent more likely to develop dementia after 65. The dementia risk increased with the severity of heart defects. Mild to moderate defects were associated with 50 percent greater likelihood of dementia, while the odds were doubled with severe defects. ”

More evidence traumatic brain injuries raise later dementia risk, by Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, Reuters, Jan 31 2018.

“During the first year after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the risk of developing dementia rises four- to six-fold, according to a large Swedish study that followed millions of people age 50 or older for decades. People who experienced moderate, severe and repeated TBIs were at the greatest risk, and overall, the odds of a dementia diagnosis decreased over time. Those odds were still significantly higher, however, for people with a history of TBI even 30 years after the injury when compared to people who had never experienced TBI, the study team reports in PLoS ONE. ”

The Startling Link Between Sugar and Alzheimer's, by Olga Khazan, The Atlantic, Jan 26 2018.

“In recent years, Alzheimer’s disease has occasionally been referred to as “type 3” diabetes, though that moniker doesn’t make much sense...Instead of another type of diabetes, it’s increasingly looking like Alzheimer’s is another potential side effect of a sugary, Western-style diet...A longitudinal study, published Thursday in the journal Diabetologia, followed 5,189 people over 10 years and found that people with high blood sugar had a faster rate of cognitive decline than those with normal blood sugar—whether or not their blood-sugar level technically made them diabetic. In other words, the higher the blood sugar, the faster the cognitive decline.  ”

Exercise, pills, brain training show little hard evidence of slowing dementia, by Gene Emery, Reuters, Dec 18 2017.

“An extensive review of research on exercise, nutritional supplements, drugs and brain-training techniques concludes there is no definitive evidence that any of them protect against Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. 'To put it simply, all evidence indicates that there is no magic bullet,' said Dr. Eric B. Larson, executive director of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, in an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine, where the analyses appear. ”

Higher Brain Glucose Levels Linked to More Severe Alzheimer’s, by Janice Wood, Psych Central, Nov 12 2017.

“A new study has found a connection between abnormalities in how the brain breaks down glucose and the severity of the signature amyloid plaques and tangles in the brain, as well as the onset of eventual outward symptoms, of Alzheimer’s disease...They discovered distinct abnormalities in glycolysis, the main process by which the brain breaks down glucose, with evidence linking the severity of the abnormalities to the severity of Alzheimer’s. Lower rates of glycolysis and higher brain glucose levels correlated to more severe plaques and tangles. More severe reductions in brain glycolysis were also related to the expression of symptoms of Alzheimer’s during life, such as problems with memory. ”