Alzheimer's Disease Archive

In the journals

Do you know if you have hypertension (high blood pressure)? And if you do, are you treating it effectively? Study findings published online Sept. 9, 2020, by JAMA found that people's awareness and control of their high blood pressure have both dropped in recent years, especially among older adults.

The study pulled data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It found that the number of people who knew they had hypertension fell 8% from 2013 to 2018. Among those who were aware of their condition, more than half did not manage it adequately. In particular, adults ages 60 and older were less likely to control their high blood pressure than younger people. Lack of engagement could be a factor. Researchers noted that among people who hadn't been to their doctor in the past year, fewer than 10% had controlled their blood pressure.

In the journals

Flavanols give fruits and vegetables their bright colors. They are also found in tea and cocoa. Observational studies have shown that eating foods rich in flavanols is linked with less cognitive decline as people age. New research suggests a possible reason why: flavanols appear to improve blood flow to the brain.

Researchers gave cocoa flavanols to 18 healthy adults in two separate trials. In one, the people consumed a cocoa drink with about 681 milligrams (mg) of flavanols. In the other, they had a cocoa drink with about 4 mg of flavanols. About two hours after having the cocoa drink, participants briefly inhaled air with high concentrations of carbon dioxide to raise their blood level above normal. (The brain's normal response to high blood carbon dioxide levels is to increase both blood flow to the brain and its uptake of oxygen.) The researchers then measured the speed of brain oxygenation and administered a set of mental tasks to assess cognitive performance. People had a faster brain oxygenation response after consuming high amounts of flavanols compared with lower amounts. They also scored higher on the cognitive tests and correctly solved problems 11% quicker.

In the journals

"Smell training" could help treat certain smell disorders, suggests a study published online Nov. 19, 2020, by the journal The Laryngoscope. Two common types of smell disorders are phantosmia, in which you smell an odor that isn't there, and parosmia, in which you smell strange and often unpleasant odors — for example, cinnamon smells rotten. Both disorders are believed to occur because of damage to the smell pathways (nerves that carry information from the nose to the brain), usually caused by a bacterial or viral infection. They also may result from a head injury or smoking.

The study enlisted 153 people who had experienced changes in their ability to smell after recovering from a viral infection, such as a cold or the flu. They were tested for how well they could smell a variety of odors. Smells related to phantosmia and parosmia also were identified. The people then received smell training kits that consisted of random odors as well as ones linked to their phantosmia or parosmia.

Ask the doctors

Q. I eat a lot of shellfish and recently developed gout in my knee. Did my diet cause the condition?

A. As you probably know, gout is a painful form of arthritis that occurs when high levels of a waste product called uric acid build up in the body. It can settle into joints, where it forms sharp crystals that can trigger inflammation, redness, and pain. Your diet may have aggravated the condition, but didn't cause it.

Empathy helps people get along with others, but the ability to understand another person’s experience comes more easily to some people than to others. However, the capacity for empathy can be honed and improved like any other skill.

So how do you keep your brain healthy, stay cognitively fit, and build your cognitive reserve? It's easier for some people than for others. And though genetics set the stage for your brain health, you can do something to improve your brain health and cognitive fitness.

First it is important to remember that you need a healthy body to have a healthy brain. Therefore, ensuring your brain health depends upon regularly seeing your doctor, following her or his recommendations, and managing any health conditions you have.

The deaths of friends and family members become more common as you age. Here is how to endure the grieving process.

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Most men don't face much personal loss early in their lives. Yet, once they reach a certain age, they will encounter the experience of losing someone important to them — a spouse, a friend, a relative — and the feelings of grief that often follow.

"Grief is a natural response to loss, but it is something that men are not prepared for, and they often struggle to understand how it can affect their lives," says Dr. Eric Bui, associate director for research at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders and Complicated Grief Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Here's what the research says about diet and depression.

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If you've ever found yourself in front of the TV after a bad day, mindlessly digging ice cream out of the container with a spoon, you know that mood and food are sometimes linked. But while stress eating is a verified phenomenon, the relationship between food and actual mood disorders, such as depression, is less clear. Or, to put it another way: can the things you eat influence your risk for depression — and can dietary changes potentially improve your mental health?

"The research regarding dietary factors and depression is still inconclusive," says Patricia Chocano-Bedoya, a visiting scientist in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But there have been hints that food may play a role in depression.

Stress management may reduce health problems linked to stress, which include cognitive problems and a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

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It's not uncommon to feel disorganized and forgetful when you're under a lot of stress. But over the long term, stress may actually change your brain in ways that affect your memory.

Studies in both animals and people show pretty clearly that stress can affect how the brain functions, says Dr. Kerry Ressler, chief scientific officer at McLean Hospital and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Scientists have seen changes in how the brain processes information when people experience either real-life stress or stress manufactured in a research setting. (For the latter, researchers might challenge subjects to perform a difficult task, such as counting backward from the number 1,073 by 13s while being graded.) Either type of stress seems to interfere with cognition, attention, and memory, he says.