Healthy Older Adults with Subjective Memory Loss May be at Increased Risk for Mild Cognitive Impairm
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Healthy Older Adults with Subjective Memory Loss May be at Increased Risk for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia
Forgot where you put your car keys? Having trouble recalling your colleague’s name? If so, this may be a symptom of subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), the earliest sign of cognitive decline marked by situations such as when a person recognizes they can’t remember a name like they used to or where they recently placed important objects the way they used to. Studies have shown that SCI is experienced by between one-quarter and one-half of the population over the age of 65. A new study, published in the January 11, 2010, issue of the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, finds that healthy older adults reporting SCI are 4.5 times more likely to progress to the more advanced memory-loss stages of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia than those free of SCI.
The long-term study completed by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center tracked 213 adults with and without SCI over an average of seven years, with data collection taking nearly two decades. Further cognitive decline to MCI or dementia was observed in 54 percent of SCI persons, while only in 15 percent of persons free of SCI.
New approach to fighting Alzheimer’s shows potential in clinical trial
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In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, patients typically suffer a major loss of the brain connections necessary for memory and information processing. Now, a combination of nutrients that was developed at MIT has shown the potential to improve memory in Alzheimer’s patients by stimulating growth of new brain connections.
In a clinical trial of 225 Alzheimer’s patients, researchers found that a cocktail of three naturally occurring nutrients believed to promote growth of those connections, known as synapses, plus other ingredients (B vitamins, phosopholipids and antioxidants), improved verbal memory in patients with mild Alzheimer’s.
“If you can increase the number of synapses by enhancing their production, you might to some extent avoid that loss of cognitive ability,” says Richard Wurtman, the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, who did the basic research that led to the new experimental treatment. He is an author of a paper describing the new results in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
Zebrafish journal publishes cancer biology special issue
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The zebrafish, a translucent fish often used as a model of human development and disease, offers unique advantages for studying the cause, growth, and spread of tumors using strategies and methods presented in the current “Cancer Biology” special issue of Zebrafish, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com). The entire issue is available free online at http://www.liebertpub.com/zeb
Guest Editors Steven D. Leach, MD, the Paul K. Neumann Professor in Pancreatic Cancer and Professor of Surgery, Oncology and Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) and A. Thomas Look, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and Vice-Chair for Research Pediatric Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA), have compiled a comprehensive collection of papers that describe current approaches for modeling human cancer in zebrafish, studying tissue remodeling in zebrafish embryos, and understanding the genes, genetic control elements, and repair pathways involved in the development and metastasis of tumors.
A particular advantage of using zebrafish to study cancer biology is the ability to transplant human tumors into the fish using well-established methods. Authors Leonard Zon, PhD, and Alison Taylor, PhD, from Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston present the concepts and techniques relevant to zebrafish transplantation assays. They describe how tumor transplantation has been used to study leukemia, rhabdomyosarcoma, and melanoma in the paper “Zebrafish Tumor Assays: The State of Transplantation.”
Shanghai dairy shut after melamine scare: report
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A Shanghai dairy has been closed and three of its executives arrested for selling milk powder tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical responsible for the death of six children in 2008, Xinhua news agency reported.
Xinhua said powder and flavouring products sold by the Shanghai Panda Dairy Company were found to contain illegally high traces of the toxic chemical, which is rich in nitrogen and enables producers to foil mandatory protein content tests.
The company’s warehouses were sealed off and authorities were currently overseeing the recall of the company’s products from seven other regions, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
Madoff being treated for hypertension: official
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Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is being treated for high blood pressure and dizziness, and was not hurt by another prisoner, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said on Thursday.
“Bernie Madoff was not assaulted. He’s being treated at the (Butner) federal medical center for dizziness and hypertension,” said Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley.
A Raleigh, North Carolina television station reported on its website that Madoff was hospitalized late last week and treated for facial fractures, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Citing unidentified sources, the station reported that Madoff’s injuries were consistent with an assault.
American Diabetes Association Statement Regarding Senate Passing Of Health Care Bill
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The American Diabetes Association issues the following statement about the passing of HR 3590 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“The passing of health reform in the Senate is a historic moment for our nation and for all people affected by diabetes,” commented George J. Huntley, Chair of the Board, American Diabetes Association. “People with diabetes have earned an important victory today because the Senate bill eliminates pre-existing condition exclusions, guarantees issue of insurance, prevents insurance companies from dropping someone because of illness, eliminates lifetime caps on benefits, limits out-of-pocket expenses, and provides subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford insurance.
Omega-3s help stave off age-related vision loss
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Want to keep your eyesight sharp as you age? Eating lots of fish packed with healthy omega-3 fatty acids could help, new research suggests.
Among 1,837 people who had early signs of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), those with the highest consumption of omega-3 fatty acids were 30 percent less likely to progress to the advanced form of the disease over a 12-year period than those with the lowest omega-3 intake, researchers found.
Dr. John Paul SanGiovanni of the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and his colleagues report their findings in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Texting driver six times more likely to crash
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Text-messaging drivers are six times more likely to get into an accident than drivers who do not text, researchers said in a study released on Monday.
The researchers say the study, using simulator vehicles and identical traffic scenarios, also found the risk of texting behind the wheel appeared to be significantly higher than talking on a cell phone while driving, another dangerous distraction.
“When people talk on the phone while driving they are four times more likely to get into an accident. Here we find another ... increase in this risk,” said researcher Frank Drews of the University of Utah, citing previous research.
Obama seeks drug imports outside of US health bill
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The White House pledged on Sunday to move forward on allowing imports of safe prescription drugs from nations like Canada where they are less expensive, but not in the healthcare reform legislation now before Congress.
The pharmaceutical industry’s powerful Washington lobbying group backs the healthcare reform legislation that is President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority, but its important support for that effort could evaporate if drug imports are included.
White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration will pursue the issue, but not in the healthcare reform bill.
High-dose vitamin C may boost women’s cataract risk
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Women who take high-dose vitamin C supplements may be increasing their risk of age-related cataracts, hint findings of a Swedish study.
Among nearly 24,600 adult women followed for more than 8 years, those who reported regular or occasional vitamin C supplementation of about 1000 milligrams per serving were about 25 percent more likely than those who did not take supplements to have age-related cataracts removed.
Women who took extra vitamin C for 10 years or longer; or in combination with being 65 years and older, or taking hormone replacement or corticosteroid medications had even greater risk, researchers found.
Arizona State and Mayo Clinic Partner to Combat Metabolic Syndrome
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Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic in Arizona are joining forces in a partnership to investigate metabolic syndrome – a cluster of high-risk medical factors that include increased blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, excess body fat and abnormal cholesterol levels, which can lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Physicians, scientists and clinicians at the new ASU/Mayo Center for Metabolic and Vascular Biology will work together on solutions for this medical disorder. Research to better understand how insulin resistance affects the body’s blood vessels and metabolism will be an important part of the work at the new center, with facilities at the ASU Tempe campus and Mayo Clinic in Arizona, on the Scottsdale campus.
Lawrence Mandarino, Ph.D., a professor and founding director of the Center for Metabolic Biology at ASU, will direct the new joint venture.
Alzheimer’s protein may be early risk factor
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Imaging tests may be able to detect the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease long before it begins to affect memory, a finding that may lead to earlier, more effective treatments, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They said healthy people who have an abnormal buildup of a protein in the brain linked with Alzheimer’s disease have a higher risk of developing the disease.
“Our paper shows for the time that people who during life are known to have amyloid plaques in the brain - the plaques of Alzheimer’s disease - have a very high risk of developing dementia in just a few years,” said John Morris, director of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, whose study appears in the journal Archives of Neurology.
Plasticizer may be tied to boys’ breast enlargement
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A report out today points to yet another possible harmful effect of exposure to phthalates—a controversial plastics chemical used widely in the manufacture of consumer products.
Researchers from Turkey found higher blood levels of the most commonly used plasticizer, DEHP, in a group of boys with abnormal enlargement of the breasts—a common condition seen in up to 65 percent of adolescent boys called pubertal gynecomastia. The condition usually resolves on its own after boys get through puberty.
“Unfortunately,” Dr. Elif N. Ozmert from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey noted in an email to Reuters Health, “we are exposed to this (chemical) in many ways via direct contact,” breathing, and eating.
Possible cure for HIV patients?
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On December 7th, an article was published in PLoS One that explained that researchers from UCLA AIDS Institute have found a way to use human stem cells to fight HIV-infected cells. The human stem cells can be engineered into cells that can target and kill the infected cells.
The researchers explained that they took the CD8 cytotoxic T lymphocytes, which are the cells that help fight infections in the body, from an infected individual and identified the T-cell receptors. The T-cell receptors are the cells that recognize and kill the HIV-infected cells. The receptors do not generate enough to completely destroy the virus but the researchers have found a way to engineer these cells and produce large quantities of the HIV-specific CD8 cells.
The researchers determined that the HIV-specific T cells have to match the individual in order to properly work and destroy the infected cells.
Ask yourself, who really needs help in your family?
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In spite of his mom’s death from breast cancer two years ago, 14-year-old Damian appeared to be doing well. He was experiencing typical adolescent issues with independence and responsibility, but seemed to be working those out with his dad. Damian was starting to think about college, motivated by a desire to “always make my mom proud of me.”
I was a bit taken aback when I shared my impressions with his dad. He became very quiet and simply said “our family is not right. We need help.”
I finally realized that I was focusing on the wrong client. I stopped talking about Damian and instead questioned dad about how he was doing.
