How Much Do You Know About Alzheimer’s Disease?

More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, and that number could climb to 16 million by 2050. Women face a higher risk of developing it than men, and are also more likely to become caregivers. Take this quiz to see how much you know about Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer's disease: 7 things that raise your risk

Think Alzheimer's disease strikes out of the blue? Maybe not. A new study published in The Lancet Neurology shows that healthy living can help prevent Alzheimer's. The study found seven conditions in particular that account for up to half of the 35 million cases of Alzheimer's around the world and in the U.S. What are these behaviors? READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Overeating may double odds of memory loss in elderly

Can stuffing your mouth clog your brain? A new study suggests overeating may double the risk for memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), among people age 70 and older.

The study - to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in April - involved over 1,200 dementia-free people between ages 70 and 89. Of those, 163 people had MCI. Participants filled out a questionnaire about the amount of calories they consumed daily.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the intermediate stage between the expected cognitive decline of normal aging and the more pronounced decline of dementia, according to the Mayo Clinic. It increases a person's risk for developing later dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, but some people with MCI never get worse.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

New drug quickly reverses Alzheimer's symptoms

U.S. researchers have found that use of a drug in mice appears to quickly reverse the pathological, cognitive and memory deficits caused by the onset of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published online in journal Science on Thursday.

The results point to the significant potential that the medication, bexarotene, has to help the roughly 5.4 million Americans suffering from the progressive brain disease, the researchers said.

Bexarotene has been approved for thetreatment of cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more than a decade. These experiments explored whether the medication might also be used to help patients with Alzheimer's disease, and the results were more than promising.

Alzheimer's disease arises in large part from the body's inability to clear naturally-occurring amyloid beta from the brain. In 2008 Case Western Reserve University researcher Gary Landreth, professor of neurosciences at School of Medicine, discovered that the main cholesterol carrier in the brain, Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), facilitated the clearance of the amyloid beta proteins.

Landreth and his colleagues chose to explore the effectiveness of bexarotene for increasing ApoE expression. The elevation of brain ApoE levels, in turn, speeds the clearance of amyloid beta from the brain. Bexarotene acts by stimulating retinoid X receptors, which control how much ApoE is produced.

In particular, the researchers were struck by the speed with which bexarotene improved memory deficits and behavior even as it also acted to reverse the pathology of Alzheimer's disease.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Younger onset Alzheimer's patients stay active

Keeping busy 'gives you a cognitive advantage,' physician says

Younger onset Alzheimer's is diagnosed in those younger than age 65 and strikes 250,000 Americans a year, according to the Alzheimer's Association. "More people are being diagnosed with younger onset," Kerwin said. "Typically, they're in their 50s, but we see them as young as their 30s and 40s."

The first hurdle is often a proper diagnosis, a process of elimination that can take years as doctors tell patients they are too young to have Alzheimer's. Pati Hoffman, 57, of Carol Stream, had to give up the corporate marketing job she loved after Alzheimer's struck her at age 55, but only after an excruciating period of medical tests and ambiguous findings.

She went to so many doctors and had so many tests that her diagnosis was a relief, she said. "They kept telling me it was just stress," said Hoffman, who is now an adviser for the Greater Illinois Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. "So at least I finally had an answer."

READ MORE HERE.