Word: dementias
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We didn't really need another reason to lose weight, but headlines last week provided one anyway: news that as your body gets larger, your brain may be getting smaller. That's a little overdramatic, to be sure, but it is now probably reasonable to add dementia to the ever growing list of obesity-related illnesses. For some time, researchers have known that carrying a lot of extra weight is not only linked to chronic diseases like arthritis and cancer but may also be a risk factor for brain diseases like Alzheimer's. And now, using sophisticated brain scans, scientists...
...Where do the micro changes come from--longstanding hypertension or high cholesterol?" says Dr. Richard Mayeux, co-director of Columbia University's Alzheimer's research center, who is studying the connection. If either of them turns out to be involved, controlling both may be an unexpected way to reduce dementia risk...
...different approach to Alzheimer's is being pursued at Memory Pharmaceuticals. Drawing on Nobel-prizewinning research by co-founder Eric Kandel, the company hopes to develop drugs that reverse dementia, memory loss, depression and schizophrenia. Chief executive Tony Scullion says it has already developed a drug that fights Alzheimer's by restoring the process by which short-term memories are logged in for long-term recall. Swiss drug firm Roche is now testing it on humans, with clinical results expected in the near future...
...mental illness, according to a new study by Indiana University. In a four-state survey of 2,100 seniors living in these increasingly popular elder-care facilities, physicians found that fully two-thirds of the residents exhibited behaviors ranging from aimless wandering and hoarding to more serious signs of dementia, depression and psychosis. Such symptoms are thought to be far more common in those living in nursing homes, who suffer from more serious medical problems. Similar signs of mental instability are found in 50% to 80% of those residents. --By Alice Park
According to Abbot, men who were 71 to 93 years old and walked less than one-fourth of a mile per day were nearly twice as likely to develop dementia as those who walked more than two miles...