Alzheimer's Disease Archive

Knowing you have a gene variant that may raise your risk can be distressing. But new research reveals a silver lining.

A particular gene variant that affects cholesterol levels in the blood may influence a person’s risk of both Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
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Alzheimer's disease strikes fear in people's hearts, as it gradually erodes a person's ability to remember, think, and learn. There is no cure, and available treatments alleviate symptoms only temporarily. Yet while an estimated 5.3 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's disease, this brain disorder is far less common than heart disease. More than 85 million people in the United States are living with some form of cardiovascular disease or the aftereffects of stroke, which also affects brain function.

Q. Do you think we'll ever be able to prevent Alzheimer's disease?

A. I do. Not because I'm an optimist (though I am) but because of the results of research in the past 25 years.

As you've gotten older, have you noticed that you often find yourself marching around the house in a huff, searching for misplaced car keys or eyeglasses, or you just cannot remember the name of that new neighbor you met when walking the dog? It's frustrating, to be sure, but not inevitable — and there are things you can do to help keep your memory sharp.

"Most people get a little more forgetful with aging, but there are some simple things you can do to prevent memory slips and help your brain to learn and remember better," says Dr. Anne Fabiny, chief of geriatrics at Cambridge Health Alliance and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

A negative attitude about aging appears to be associated with a higher likelihood of Alzheimer's disease.

A study in the journal Psychology and Aging examined healthy, dementia-free subjects from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, the nation's longest-running scientific study of aging.

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Four steps—following a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, socializing, and challenging your brain—can improve your mental skills, even as you age.

Observational studies over the past few years seem to be repeating the same message: regular physical activity, a good diet, taking on new mental challenges, and maintaining strong social connections may each help you hang on to your mind. The latest and most impressive study goes a step further by suggesting that if you follow all four practices, you may even reverse lost mental capacity. The results of the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) indicated that doing so not only kept cognitive skills from declining, it also improved reasoning skills and speed in performing mental tasks.

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Tau proteins, and not necessarily beta-amyloid, may be the key to unlocking a viable treatment.

Alzheimer's disease affects more than five million people, and that number is expected to more than double by 2050. While there is no cure, attention has refocused on what many researchers believe is a major player in Alzheimer's: tau proteins.

Dementia affects the person diagnosed but also raises fears for siblings and children. Here are the facts.

After a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, families face fears and difficult medical decisions.

Alzheimer's disease represents a personal health crisis, but it's also a family concern. What does it mean for your children or siblings if you are diagnosed with Alzheimer's? What does it mean for you if a close relative develops the condition?

Two common classes of drugs have been linked to dementia. Fortunately, there are alternatives to both.

If you're worried about developing dementia, you've probably memorized the list of things you should do to minimize your risk—eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, and keeping your mind and soul engaged. In addition, some of the drugs you may be taking to help you accomplish those things could increase your risk of dementia. In two separate large population studies, both benzodiazepines (a category that includes medications for anxiety and sleeping pills) and anticholinergics (a group that encompasses medications for allergies and colds, depression, high blood pressure, and incontinence) were associated with an increased risk of dementia in people who used them for longer than a few months. In both cases, the effect increased with the dose of the drug and the duration of use.

These findings didn't come entirely as a surprise to doctors who treat older people. The Beer's List published by the American Geriatrics Society has long recognized benzodiazepines, antihistamines, and tricyclic antidepressants as potentially inappropriate for older adults, given their side effects. Such drugs are on the list because they share troubling side effects—confusion, clouded thinking, and memory lapses—that can lead to falls, fractures, and auto accidents.

Reports at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in July 2015 verified that women are at higher risk than men for developing Alzheimer's, and also progress more rapidly from mild cognitive impairment to out-right dementia than men do. But not all the news was bad. A study reported at the meeting indicates that physical exercise can halt, and even reverse, the decline in people with mild cognitive impairment.

In that study, conducted by researchers at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, 65 previously sedentary women and men with mild cognitive impairment exercised at peak capacity for at least 45 minutes four times a week for six months. At the beginning and end of the study, researchers tested participants' cognitive skills and examined their blood and cerebrospinal fluid for levels of tau protein—a principal component of the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. They found that the participants scored significantly higher on the cognitive tests at the end of the study than they had at the beginning. Their tau protein levels had declined substantially as well.

We know that moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, can both improve thinking skills and slow their decline in older age. Now a trio of studies presented at the July 2015 Alzheimer's Association International Conference suggest that aerobic exercise may even be able to help protect your brain from Alzheimer's and other dementias, and improve your quality of life if you have the disease. One study of 200 adults with Alzheimer's showed that those who engaged in three hour-long exercise sessions a week for 16 weeks had less anxiety, irritability, and depression and better mental speed and attention compared with those who didn't exercise. A study of 65 sedentary older adults with mild cognitive impairment showed that those who took part in 45 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week for six months not only had better attention and planning skills, but also better blood flow to the brain and a reduction in dangerous proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease, compared with those who only did stretching exercises. A study of 71 older adults with cognitive impairment due to vascular disease found that those who did an hour of aerobic exercise three times per week for six months improved their thinking skills, memory, and attention compared with those who did not exercise. Although the studies were presented at a scientific meeting, it's only after publication of the full details that scientists can adequately judge a work. Nevertheless, the studies are in line with past research showing that regular exercise may help protect the brain.