Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Primary care services may result in less costly care for residents with advanced dementia: Study

Nursing home residents with advanced dementia commonly experience burdensome, costly interventions that do not improve their quality of life or extend their survival. Now a new study suggests that providing intensive primary care services may result in less burdensome and less costly care for these terminally ill residents.

24 Sep 2013

Scientists validate new system for identifying individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's disease

For years, scientists have attempted to understand how Alzheimer's disease harms the brain before memory loss and dementia are clinically detectable. Most researchers think this preclinical stage, which can last a decade or more before symptoms appear, is the critical phase when the disease might be controlled or stopped, possibly preventing the failure of memory and thinking abilities in the first place.

24 Sep 2013

Sleep disturbances may influence vascular cognitive decline

Patients with vascular cognitive impairment without dementia have distinct abnormal sleep patterns that may be related to their cognitive deficits, researchers report.

23 Sep 2013

New research chair established to develop innovative strategies for Alzheimer's disease

On September 19, INRS director general Daniel Coderre and INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier Centre director Charles M. Dozois announced the creation of the Louise and André Charron Research Chair in Alzheimer's Disease.

23 Sep 2013

Cases of elderly dementia projected to triple by mid-century

By the middle of the century, the number of older people suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia will nearly triple, severely straining caregiving resources, the charity Alzheimer's Disease International says in a new study released Thursday (Neuman, 9/19).

21 Sep 2013

Alzheimer Society of Canada requests for Canadian Alzheimer's disease and dementia partnership

On the eve of World Alzheimer's Day, the Alzheimer Society of Canada has called on the Federal Government to immediately establish a Canadian Alzheimer's disease and dementia partnership to lead and facilitate the development and implementation of a national dementia strategy.

21 Sep 2013

First Edition: September 20, 2013

Today's headlines include the latest on the Capitol Hill hijinx surrounding efforts to defund the health law and avert a government shutdown.

20 Sep 2013

Florida Hospital To Evaluate VTT’S Alzheimer’S Biomarker Assay

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is taking an important step toward advancing its Alzheimer's disease biomarker by collaborating with the Florida Hospital Neuroscience Institute to evaluate screening, diagnostic, and prognostic potential of the biomarker assay and utilize it to specifically target which types of precautions to take when approaching early stages of the disease.

19 Sep 2013

Blood lipid marker may help predict risk for Parkinson's disease

A genetic mutation, known as GBA, that leads to early onset of Parkinson's disease and severe cognitive impairment (in about 4 to 7 percent of all patients with the disease) also alters how specific lipids, ceramides and glucosylceramides are metabolized. Mayo Clinic researchers have found that Parkinson's patients who do not carry the genetic mutation also have higher levels of these lipids in the blood. Further, those who had Parkinson's and high blood levels were also more likely to have cognitive impairment and dementia.

19 Sep 2013

New tools can help manage negative behavioural symptoms in dementia patients

A rapidly aging population means an increased likelihood of the diseases of old age becoming more prevalent and more problematic for those afflicted with such illnesses, their family and carers, and overburdened healthcare services.

19 Sep 2013

Study: Neurocognitive impairment is one of common side effects of HIV and AIDS

One of the common side effects of HIV and AIDS is neurocognitive impairments - changes in how fast a person can process information, pay attention, multi-task and remember things - yet there are no adequate tests to screen patients for these problems, according to a new study out of St. Michael's Hospital.

19 Sep 2013

NIH announces $45 million grant to find effective interventions for Alzheimer's

The National Institutes of Health announced on Wednesday the award of a new research grant to discover, characterize and validate complex molecular networks and candidate genes that influence susceptibility to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease.

19 Sep 2013

Comprehensive changes in lifestyle could reverse ageing

A pilot study, published in The Lancet Oncology, shows that comprehensive lifestyle changes may increase the length of telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that control cell ageing.

19 Sep 2013

New information about how estrogens regulate memory formation

The loss of estrogens at menopause increases a woman's risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, yet hormone replacement therapy can cause harmful side effects.

19 Sep 2013

First clinical trials to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease

More than a century ago, Alois Alzheimer, a Bavarian physician, first identified the neurodegenerative brain condition that came to be known as Alzheimer's disease. Finding ways to diagnose and treat this disease has frustrated scientists and clinicians ever since.

19 Sep 2013

New evidence suggests that taking vitamin B supplements may help reduce risk of stroke

New evidence suggests that taking vitamin B supplements may help reduce the risk of stroke. The research appears in the September 18, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Sep 2013

Promising early findings from Parkinson’s biomarker study

Early results from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative suggest that some cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers hold diagnostic and prognostic promise.

18 Sep 2013

Nonmotor symptoms contribute to early Parkinson’s subtypes

Researchers have characterized four distinct subgroups of patients with early Parkinson’s disease, distinguished by both motor and nonmotor symptoms.

18 Sep 2013

Viewpoints: WSJ says GOP 'kamikaze' defunding mission will not go well; taxing Medicare benefits; problems with Penn. State's wellness program

These critics [like Heritage Action and the Club for Growth] portrayed the Boehner plan as a sellout because of a campaign that captured the imagination of some conservatives this summer: Republicans must threaten to crash their Zeros into the aircraft carrier of ObamaCare.

18 Sep 2013

Florida Hospital and VTT of Finland collaborate to predict early onsets of Alzheimer's disease

In an effort to better understand the development of Alzheimer's disease, Florida Hospital Neuroscience Institute and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland are collaborating to identify the biomarker assay that may predict early onsets of the disease.

18 Sep 2013