Word: dementia
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...debilitating effects of advanced dementia - how it destroys communication, basic muscle control, even the ability to swallow - are difficult to describe in words. Often, it's not until the condition is witnessed up close that it can really be understood...
That is the theory behind a new study by researchers from Harvard Medical School, Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital and other institutions in which aging participants were asked to decide what kind of end-of-life care they would choose should they develop advanced dementia...
...some of the elements in the index were more surprising. The research team found, for instance, that patients who were underweight, did not drink alcohol and took longer to put on and button a shirt were also at high risk for dementia. Barnes speculates that fine motor skills, such as those required to button a shirt, may be one of the first things to suffer as neural connections in the brain succumb to dementia. As for the alcohol connection, she suggests that people who drink alcohol may simply be healthier overall and therefore less vulnerable than others to mental decline...
...from future memory loss. "This study has taken a number of earlier findings on risk factors and combined them into a fairly impressive predictor of risk," says Dr. Ralph Nixon, vice chair of the medical and scientific advisory council for the Alzheimer's Association. The new index accurately predicts dementia in 81% of cases. (The midlife tool predicts dementia accurately 78% of the time...
...mind is what is most important for reducing risk of Alzheimer's," says Nixon, who is also director of the Center of Excellence on Brain Aging at New York University Langone Medical Center. And if this screen can inform more people about their risk of developing dementia - and encourage younger folks to start taking precautions early - perhaps they will be able to prevent the disorder from occurring in the first place...