Warning: file_put_contents(): Only 0 of 143 bytes written, possibly out of free disk space in /var/www/fulltextrssfeed.com/libs/ftrf/functions.php on line 454 Warning: file_put_contents(): Only 0 of 264 bytes written, possibly out of free disk space in /var/www/fulltextrssfeed.com/libs/ftrf/functions.php on line 454 Warning: file_put_contents(): Only 0 of 245 bytes written, possibly out of free disk space in /var/www/fulltextrssfeed.com/libs/ftrf/functions.php on line 454 Warning: file_put_contents(): Only 0 of 193 bytes written, possibly out of free disk space in /var/www/fulltextrssfeed.com/libs/ftrf/functions.php on line 454 Warning: file_put_contents(): Only 0 of 342 bytes written, possibly out of free disk space in /var/www/fulltextrssfeed.com/libs/ftrf/functions.php on line 454 Warning: file_put_contents(): Only 0 of 222 bytes written, possibly out of free disk space in /var/www/fulltextrssfeed.com/libs/ftrf/functions.php on line 454 Warning: file_put_contents(): Only 0 of 290 bytes written, possibly out of free disk space in /var/www/fulltextrssfeed.com/libs/ftrf/functions.php on line 454 http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=Alzheimers Google News // via fulltextrssfeed.com http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=Alzheimers http://www.gstatic.com/news-static/img/logo/en_us/news.gif http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFEpyeDVldq6CPksLdSeSmLIuu1Xg&url=http://www.nbcnews.com/health/blood-pressure-drugs-may-help-alzheimers-study-suggests-6C10755394 http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFEpyeDVldq6CPksLdSeSmLIuu1Xg&url=http://www.nbcnews.com/health/blood-pressure-drugs-may-help-alzheimers-study-suggests-6C10755394 Fri, 26 Jul 2013 09:06:39 +0000 <div data-id="entries/6C10755394" data-hideads="false" data-headlineslugandid="blood-pressure-drugs-may-help-alzheimers-study-suggests-6C10755394" data-headline="Blood pressure drugs may help Alzheimer’s, study suggests" data-adtier="0" data-isexternal="false" data-tagset="Aging" data-sponsored="false"> <div class="entry-top"><span class="category"><a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Ftag%2Falzheimer">alzheimer</a></span> <p><span class="byline-name">Maggie Fox</span> <span class="byline-affiliation">NBC News</span></p> </div> <div class="share-bar"> <ul><li class="share-facebook share-button" shareuri="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nbcnews.com%2fhealth%2fblood-pressure-drugs-may-help-alzheimers-study-suggests-6C10755394&t=Blood%20pressure%20drugs%20may%20help%20Alzheimer%e2%80%99s%2c%20study%20suggests" title="Share on Facebook"><a id="btn-facebook">Facebook</a> <a id="slideout-facebook" class="btn-fadein">Share on Facebook</a></li> <li class="share-linkedin share-button" shareuri="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nbcnews.com%2fhealth%2fblood-pressure-drugs-may-help-alzheimers-study-suggests-6C10755394&title=Blood%20pressure%20drugs%20may%20help%20Alzheimer%e2%80%99s%2c%20study%20suggests" title="Share on LinkedIn"><a>LinkedIn</a></li> <li class="share-googleplus share-button" shareuri="https://plus.google.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nbcnews.com%2fhealth%2fblood-pressure-drugs-may-help-alzheimers-study-suggests-6C10755394&hl=en-US" title="Share on GooglePlus"><a>GooglePlus</a></li> <li class="share-email share-button" shareuri="mailto:?subject=Blood%20pressure%20drugs%20may%20help%20Alzheimer%e2%80%99s%2c%20study%20suggests - on NBCNews.com&body=I%20saw%20this%20story%20on%20NBCNews.com%20and%20thought%20you%27d%20find%20it%20interesting.%0d%0a%0d%0a%2a%2a%20Blood%20pressure%20drugs%20may%20help%20Alzheimer%e2%80%99s%2c%20study%20suggests%20%2a%2a%0d%0aBlood%20pressure%20drugs%20may%20help%20Alzheimer%e2%80%99s%2c%20study%20suggests%20%0d%0ahttp%3a%2f%2fwww.nbcnews.com%2fhealth%2fblood-pressure-drugs-may-help-alzheimers-study-suggests-6C10755394%0d%0a%0d%0aFor%20more%20news%2c%20visit%20http%3a%2f%2fwww.NBCNews.com" title="Share on Email"><a>Email</a></li> </ul></div> <p class="time"><span class="value">20</span> hours ago</p> <p>Patients who took a certain type of blood pressure medication got measurable relief from worsening Alzheimer’s symptoms, too, researchers reported on Thursday.<br/></p> <p>It’s the latest in a series of studies on the effects of various blood pressure drugs on the fatal and incurable brain disease, which is affecting more and more Americans as people live longer.</p> <p>In this case, it was a type of drug called an ACE inhibitor. Patients at a hospital in Ireland who were taking the drugs anyway to treat their high blood pressure did not worsen at the same rate as patients not taking the drugs, said William Molloy of the Centre for Gerontology and Rehabilitation at University College Cork in Ireland.</p> <p>“They were not progressing at the same pace as other people,” Molloy told NBC News.</p> <p>Molloy, who treats Alzheimer’s patients, said he decided to look after he saw other studies suggesting ACE inhibitors might help. He went back through the medical records of 800 patients with Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia. Of them, 360 had test scores the team could use to assess the progress of their disease over six months.</p> <p>Those taking the ACE inhibitors lost their memory and other thinking abilities at a rate that was about 20 to 30 percent slower than the others, Molloy’s team reported in a study published Thursday in BMJ Open.</p> <p>“That may not sound like very much,” he said. But over years, the effect would be compounded. And these drugs are available generically and very cheap.</p> <p>The results would have to be tested in a larger study – preferably a so-called double-blind, prospective study that looked at patients over time, with the drug randomly assigned. That’s important because doctors may have prescribed the drugs to patients for reasons that could also affect the course of their disease, says Dr. Gary Small of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and director of the UCLA Longevity Center.</p> <p>“The doctors decide who goes on the drug and who doesn’t. It might be some other factor that is driving the improvement,” says Small, who was not involved in the study.</p> <p>Alzheimer’s is a huge and growing problem. Researchers project that the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s will <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Falzheimers-numbers-triple-2050-report-says-1B8275586%3FfranchiseSlug%3Dhealthmain%23.UROgQvz0ZKU.twitter" target="_blank">triple in the next 40 years</a>, which means that 13.8 million will have it by 2050.</p> <p>Census data project that as the baby boom generation ages, the number of Americans aged 65 to 84 will approximately double by 2050. Currently an estimated 4.7 million Americans have Alzheimer's, the most common cause of dementia.</p> <p>Symptoms start with mild memory and thinking problems but as the brain becomes more and more damaged, people lose the ability to find their way around, to care for themselves and, eventually, to eat and drink. “We have nothing that works in dementia at all. We have nothing that prevents it,” Molloy said.</p> <p>Researchers are desperate to find something that works. Other studies have suggested that blood pressure medication may help – but others show it may actually cause memory loss in some patients.</p> <p>“The science is so confusing,” says Small, who has <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drgarysmall.com%2Fbooks%2F" target="_blank">written a series of book</a>s on Alzheimer’s.</p> <p>"The drugs we have for Alzheimer’s dementia are basically symptomatic drugs. They work temporarily. So far as we know there is no specific drug to prevent disease. We know probably that lifestyle choices have an effect.”</p> <p>People who eat more fruits and vegetables, who exercise, and who stimulate their brains with reading, puzzles and social interaction all can lower their risk of Alzheimer’s. But people who do everything “right” still often get the disease anyway.</p> <p>Small says this study and the others show that, at the very least, it’s important to take prescribed drugs to control blood pressure.</p> <p>“One of the weaknesses of this study is that it is an observational study,” Small noted. But he and Molloy both pointed out that this also means it reflects the real world – which is messier than an carefully controlled study in which only certain patients are enrolled.</p> <p>Dr. Wesson Ashford, director of the <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Fwww.warrelatedillness.va.gov" target="_blank">War Related Illness and Injury Study Center</a> at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, agreed.</p> <p>“Some of the benefit could have been in reducing small stroke risk in the non-Alzheimer patients,” Ashford said via email. “However, it is intriguing that medications may be able to alter the course of dementia, and this is the exciting possibility,” he added.</p> <p>“This kind of study is very important not just to provide hope, but to lead new research directions that will end up stopping Alzheimer’s disease and other dementing illnesses.”</p> <p>It’s not clear how blood pressure medications might help prevent Alzheimer’s from damaging the brain. Molloy believes they may work by suppressing inflammation – a process that’s also involved in the damage caused by heart disease.</p> <p>A <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neurology.org%2Fcgi%2Fcontent%2Fmeeting_abstract%2F80%2F1_MeetingAbstracts%2FP03.094" target="_blank">study</a> in the journal Neurology showed that, at least in Japanese-American men, taking beta-blockers lowered the risk of Alzheimer’s and general cognitive decline.</p> <p>That study showed no effect from ACE inhibitors or other blood pressure drugs. But Molloy said ACE inhibitors – which include drugs such as Lotensin, captopril, Vasotec and lisonopril – cross the so-called blood brain barrier and can affect brain tissue.<br/></p> <p>But studies on various drugs to treat other diseases being tested against Alzheimer’s have disappointed before. Just last May, researchers said they had <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Falzheimers-drug-was-too-good-be-true-studies-find-6C10054850" target="_blank">failed to replicate</a> experimental findings that a cancer drug could treat Alzheimer’s.<br/></p> <p>Bceause the drug, Targretin, was already approved as a cancer treatment, doctors know how safe it is and could prescribe it “off label” to treat any condition, including Alzheimer’s. The same could be true of blood pressure drugs, but Small said it’s too soon to start prescribing any blood pressure drugs strictly to help prevent or treat Alzheimer’s.</p> <div class="entry-tags clearfix" data-tagsetslug="aging"> <h3 class="tags-label">Tags:</h3> <ul><li class="tagset" data-tagsetslug="aging"><a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Ftopic%2Faging">Aging</a><span>,</span></li> <li class="tag" data-tagslug="alzheimer"><a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Ftag%2Falzheimer">alzheimer</a><span>,</span></li> <li class="tag" data-tagslug="blood-pressure"><a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Ftag%2Fblood-pressure">blood-pressure</a><span>,</span></li> <li class="tag" data-tagslug="dementia"><a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Ftag%2Fdementia">dementia</a></li> </ul></div> </div><img src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEkpfuPiLRNCEwZ2JRj2ThtfF_hbA&url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/wandering-alzheimers-_n_3653267.html http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEkpfuPiLRNCEwZ2JRj2ThtfF_hbA&url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/wandering-alzheimers-_n_3653267.html Fri, 26 Jul 2013 14:12:36 +0000 <div class="entry_body_text"> <div class="float_left"> <div class="ad_share_box hidden"> <style><![CDATA[#news_entries #ad_sharebox_260x60 img {padding:0px;margin:0px}]]></style></div> </div> <div class="articleBody" itemprop="articleBody"> <p>In some cities, there are so many homeless people wandering the streets that others barely notice anymore. </p> <p>But while mental illness is frequently to blame for their situations, those suffering specifically from Alzheimer's disease may wander without knowing why they are there or where they've come from. </p> <p>It's an unfortunately common problem for people with Alzheimer's to end up lost. But those who then vanish without a trace -– the people who cannot be located and are often never found –- constitute a rapidly growing crisis looming on the horizon for baby boomers and their loved ones.</p> <p>"There should be more awareness," Darolyn Fagg told HuffPost. "When a patient is diagnosed, a doctor's office should be more proactive in sharing information about the available resources. We had no idea until my mother went missing."</p> <p>Fagg's mother, Hellen Cook, 72, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2009. Her symptoms worsened and her ability to speak significantly diminished over time, according to her daughter.</p> <p>Cook <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2013%2F07%2F22%2Fhellen-cook-missing_n_3635875.html%3F1374524763" target="_hplink">was last seen on July 13</a>, near Warsaw, Mo., a small city about 100 miles southeast of Kansas City.</p> <p>Cook and Fagg's father, Howard Cook, were at their second home in rural Benton County when she disappeared. Howard Cook said his wife of 51 years was sitting on a porch swing when he went to put his lawn mower away. When he returned, she was gone.</p> <style type="text/css"><![CDATA[#topnav_margin_btm { margin:0 !important }]]></style><p>Despite multiple searches, Hellen Cook has never been found.</p> <p>"These things can happen any given time. All it takes is a caregiver who's working really hard, to turn around for a second and the person can wander," said Beth Kallmyer, vice president of constituent services at the <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alz.org" target="_hplink">Alzheimer's Association</a>.</p> <p>Alzheimer's disease is fueling an increase in missing person cases worldwide and, without a cure, the problem could reach epidemic proportions by the year 2050. The disease, the most common form of dementia, is gradual, unbeatable so far and ultimately fatal. It afflicts 1 in 9 people older than 65, and according to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 6 of every 10 people with dementia will wander -- and some never to be found.</p> <p>The growing number of reported cases has not gone unnoticed by organizations committed to raising awareness about missing persons. "I've seen a steady increase in our own cases in the past five years," Kelly Murphy, founder of the Omaha, Nebraska-based <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fprojectjason.org%2F" target="_hplink">Project Jason</a>, told The Huffington Post.</p> <p>Project Jason offers resources to families of the missing and has successfully organized grassroots efforts to pass missing-persons legislation. Murphy started Project Jason after her son, <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2011%2F11%2F17%2Fjason-jolkowski-kelly-jolkowski_n_1099529.html" target="_hplink">Jason Jolkowski</a>, disappeared in June 2001. He is still missing.</p> <p>"There's approximately 125,000 search-and-rescue missions where volunteer teams are deployed ... for missing Alzheimer's patients every year," said <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.searchdogsraven.net%2FSDR15.html" target="_hplink">Kimberly Kelly</a>, founder and director of Project Far From Home, an Alzheimer's education program designed for law enforcement and search and rescue personnel.</p> <p>The estimated number of reported cases is conservative, because not every department contributes to the reports, she said.</p> <p>"With 5.5 million people with the disease, and 70 percent wandering away at least once, you can do the math," she said. "Even [if] it is a 10-minute wandering episode versus a 10-day episode, you're still looking at potentially 3 million people who would be walking away any given year. It's huge."</p> <p>For many families, a lack of education about the disease fuels the problem.</p> <p>Patricia Bryan has been looking for her father, <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fprojectjason.org%2Fforums%2Ftopic%2F3516-missing-man-charles-kenneth-lawson-ga-06062013%2F" target="_hplink">Kenneth Lawson</a>, since June 6. The 76-year-old was last seen at his home in Union Point, Ga. A number of exhaustive searches has been conducted, all to no avail.</p> <p>"We have had no leads on the whereabouts of my father," Bryan said. "He was not always in a state of confusion. He would have moments were he would check out or not know where he was, but this was not all the time. Up till my father went missing, I didn't realize just how many people with dementia and Alzheimer's went missing on a daily basis. The media does not do them justice."</p> <p>With each day, the odds of finding any missing person decrease, but when the missing person suffers from an impairment, the odds are worse. Alzheimer's patients do not wander without an actual cause; very few have hallucinations. They typically are going somewhere, looking for something, and don't actually consider themselves lost, so they don't reach out for help. The environment also can play a pivotal role</p> <p>"In Virginia, if an Alzheimer's patient is not found in 24 hours, about 46 percent are found dead. In Nova Scotia, the mortality rate is 70 percent. In parts of California, we've never recovered a live Alzheimer's patient after 24 hours," Kelly said.</p> <p>And it's a problem that will continue to grow. Unless a cure is found, an estimated 16.5 million people will suffer from Alzheimer's by the year 2050.</p> <p>"In the next 20 years, it's going to bloom because of the baby boomer population," said Amanda Burstein, project manager of <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theiacp.org%2Fabout%2Fgovernance%2Fdivisions%2Fstateassociationsofchiefsofpolicesacop%2Fcurrentsacopprojects%2Fmissingalzheimersdiseasepatientinitiative%2Ftabid%2F897%2Fdefault.aspx" target="_hplink">Alzheimer's Initiatives for the International Association of Chiefs of Police</a>. "That, in tandem with people using alert system's, we'll be seeing it more and it will be happening more because there are more of us at risk for it."</p> <p>Earlier in 2013, the Obama administration dedicated an additional $100 million within President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fvideo%2Fobama-announces-100-million-campaign-to-map-brain-ts3Jeuu0QBemP7a7B0P%7EAA.html" target="_hplink">to the fight against Alzheimer's</a>. A "National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease" was also implemented. The goal is to prevent and effectively treat the disease by 2025.</p> <p>The success of the president’s initiative is difficult to predict. In the interim, better education for the families of Alzheimer's patients and members of law enforcement could help curb the problem. </p> <p>"If someone does go missing, you need to call 911 immediately," said Kallmyer. "It's not a situation where you wait 24 hours, because they are vulnerable and can't necessarily find their way home or take care of themselves. It's always an emergency."</p> <p>Thirty-two states in the United States have some form of public notification system -- sometimes referred to as a Silver Alert -- to broadcast information about missing seniors with Alzheimer's disease, dementia or other mental disabilities. The guidelines are governed on a state-by-state basis. The goal is to have an alert system in every state, but that has not been easy, according to Kelly, who said some of the opponents are members of abducted children's groups.</p> <p>"They are afraid that equipment would be utilized for Silver Alerts and the [public's] attention would be diluted for Amber Alerts," she said. "The problem with that is that we're starting to see even more cases where you have an elderly grandparent who has custody of grandchildren. You see cases where grandma is going to take a baby for a walk and doesn't come back."</p> <p>J. Todd Matthews, southeast regional director of <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.namus.gov%2F" target="_hplink">the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System</a>, which was created by the U.S. Department of Justice, said he is seeing an increase in general in missing persons cases. </p> <p>Alzheimer's is a defining disease of a rapidly aging population and knowledge is key, he said.</p> <p>"I think we will be very wise to put great thought into this issue as soon as possible," he said. "The population is growing and so will this issue without efforts to prevent it. Awareness is the first step. It's an investment in our own potential future. How would you want to be treated if it were you? It very well might be one day."</p> <p><em>For more information on the disease or to learn how you can take steps to help prevent a loved one from wandering, call the Alzheimer's Association free 24-hour hotline at 800-272-3900.</em></p> <p><em>The <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alz.org%2Fcare%2Falzheimers-dementia-wandering.asp" target="_hplink">Alzheimer's Association has put together a list of helpful tips</a></em>.</p> <p class="video_box_title">Related on HuffPost:</p> </div> "; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); }); </div><img src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFhVQ8heACpqBbFUhjbwB6XzvYIqQ&url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/100917494 http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFhVQ8heACpqBbFUhjbwB6XzvYIqQ&url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/100917494 Fri, 26 Jul 2013 18:55:55 +0000 <div><img src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2013/07/26/100917560-164362922.240x160.jpg?v=1374862873" alt="" title="" /><p><span class="last">Nikki Kahn | The Washington Post | Getty Images</span></p> <p>David Hilfiker at his home in Washington. Hilfiker, a retired doctor, is now an Alzheimer's patient, navigating the decline of his cognitive health and writing about his experiences in a blog, Watching the Lights Go Out, David Hilfiker: A Memoir from Inside Alzheimer's Disease.</p> </div><div> <p>Patients who took a certain type of blood pressure medication got measurable relief from worsening Alzheimer's symptoms, too, researchers reported on Thursday.</p> <p>It's the latest in a series of studies on the effects of various blood pressure drugs on the fatal and incurable brain disease, which is affecting more and more Americans as people live longer.</p> <p>In this case, it was a type of drug called an ACE inhibitor. Patients at a hospital in Ireland who were taking the drugs anyway to treat their high blood pressure did not worsen at the same rate as patients not taking the drugs, said William Molloy of the Centre for Gerontology and Rehabilitation at University College Cork in Ireland.</p> <p>"They were not progressing at the same pace as other people," Molloy told NBC News.</p> <p>Molloy, who treats Alzheimer's patients, said he decided to look after he saw other studies suggesting ACE inhibitors might help. He went back through the medical records of 800 patients with Alzheimer's or vascular dementia. Of them, 360 had test scores the team could use to assess the progress of their disease over six months.</p> <p>Those taking the ACE inhibitors lost their memory and other thinking abilities at a rate that was about 20 to 30 percent slower than the others, Molloy's team reported in a study published Thursday in BMJ Open.</p> <p><em>(Read more:</em> <a class="inline_asset" href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2Fid%2F100907706" data-nodeid="100907706" target="_self">Worse than death: Critical illness money fears</a><em>)</em></p> <p>"That may not sound like very much," he said. But over years, the effect would be compounded. And these drugs are available generically and very cheap.</p> <p>The results would have to be tested in a larger study—preferably a so-called double-blind, prospective study that looked at patients over time, with the drug randomly assigned. That's important because doctors may have prescribed the drugs to patients for reasons that could also affect the course of their disease, said Dr. Gary Small of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and director of the UCLA Longevity Center.</p> <p>"The doctors decide who goes on the drug and who doesn't. It might be some other factor that is driving the improvement," said Small, who was not involved in the study.</p> <p>Alzheimer's is a huge and growing problem. Researchers project that the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's will <a class="inline_asset" href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fhealth%2Falzheimers-numbers-triple-2050-report-says-1B8275586%3FfranchiseSlug%3Dhealthmain%23.UROgQvz0ZKU.twitter" target="_self">triple in the next 40 years</a>, which means that 13.8 million will have it by 2050.</p> <p>Census data project that as the baby boom generation ages, the number of Americans aged 65 to 84 will approximately double by 2050. Currently an estimated 4.7 million Americans have Alzheimer's, the most common cause of dementia.</p> <p><em>(Read more:</em> <a class="inline_asset" href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2Fid%2F100911258" data-nodeid="100911258" target="_self">Patients see higher bills after doctors sell practices</a><em>)</em></p> </div><img src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEjfrdstYedZsPdoAZYR5Q46Oqq6w&url=http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/article/20130727/SPJ04/307270027/Keys-preventing-Alzheimer-s-disease-Recommendations-include-mix-exercise-good-eating-sleep-solid-nutrition http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEjfrdstYedZsPdoAZYR5Q46Oqq6w&url=http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/article/20130727/SPJ04/307270027/Keys-preventing-Alzheimer-s-disease-Recommendations-include-mix-exercise-good-eating-sleep-solid-nutrition Sat, 27 Jul 2013 08:56:02 +0000 <div id="firefly-password-reset"> <h2 class="black">Reset your password</h2> <div class="body" id="ff_pw_rs_frm"> <p>Enter your email and we will send you a link to reset your password.</p> <form id="firefly-password-reset-form" action=""> <p><label for="fireflymodal_email">Email <input type="email" name="email" placeholder="email@example.com" id="fireflymodal_email" required=""/></label></p> <p><button type="submit" class="primary">Reset my password</button> <button type="reset" class="cancel">Cancel</button></p> <p><button type="reset" class="cancel subprim">OK</button> <button type="submit" class="primary-a">Resend Email</button></p> </form> </div> </div><div id="firefly-cookies"> <h2 class="c20">You must have browser cookies enabled to view our site.</h2> <a class="close" title="Return to Homepage" href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stevenspointjournal.com%2F" rel="home"><img src="http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/odygci/firefly/close-x.png" alt="Close"/></a> <div class="copy gnp">It's possible that your browser cookies are turned off. <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stevenspointjournal.com%2Ffaq">Read our FAQ page to find out how to enable cookies in your browser.</a></div> </div><div id="firefly-shared-revoked"> <p><img src="http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/odygci/firefly/assets/U009/options-full-digital.jpg"/></p> <h2 class="black">Account issue</h2> <button type="button" class="close" title="Close"><img src="http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/odygci/firefly/close-x.png" alt="Close"/></button> <div class="body"> <p>We're sorry, your shared access privileges have been removed by the subscriber. 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You can still look at a limited number of articles per month.</p> </div> </div><img src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF2uZPYd2Lk0-iWSKB1cVwN62EOBQ&url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130726092429.htm http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF2uZPYd2Lk0-iWSKB1cVwN62EOBQ&url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130726092429.htm Fri, 26 Jul 2013 13:59:13 +0000 <p id="first"><span class="date">July 26, 2013</span> — UCLA chemists and molecular biologists have for the first time used a "structure-based" approach to drug design to identify compounds with the potential to delay or treat Alzheimer's disease, and possibly Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's disease and other degenerative disorders.</p><div id="text"> <p>All of these diseases are marked by harmful, elongated, rope-like structures known as amyloid fibrils, linked protein molecules that form in the brains of patients.</p> <p>Structure-based drug design, in which the physical structure of a targeted protein is used to help identify compounds that will interact with it, has already been used to generate therapeutic agents for a number of infectious and metabolic diseases.</p> <p>The UCLA researchers, led by David Eisenberg, director of the UCLA-Department of Energy Institute of Genomics and Proteomics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, report the first application of this technique in the search for molecular compounds that bind to and inhibit the activity of the amyloid-beta protein responsible for forming dangerous plaques in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases.</p> <p>In addition to Eisenberg, who is also a professor of chemistry, biochemistry and biological chemistry and a member of UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute, the team included lead author Lin Jiang, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in Eisenberg's laboratory and Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher, and other UCLA faculty.</p> <p>The research was published July 16 in <em>eLife</em>, a new open-access science journal backed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust.</p> <p>A number of non-structural screening attempts have been made to identify natural and synthetic compounds that might prevent the aggregation and toxicity of amyloid fibrils. Such studies have revealed that polyphenols, naturally occurring compounds found in green tea and in the spice turmeric, can inhibit the formation of amyloid fibrils. In addition, several dyes have been found to reduce amyloid's toxic effects, although significant side effects prevent them from being used as drugs.</p> <p>Armed with a precise knowledge of the atomic structure of the amyloid-beta protein, Jiang, Eisenberg and colleagues conducted a computational screening of 18,000 compounds in search of those most likely to bind tightly and effectively to the protein.</p> <p>Those compounds that showed the strongest potential for binding were then tested for their efficacy in blocking the aggregation of amyloid-beta and for their ability to protect mammalian cells grown in culture from the protein's toxic effects, which in the past has proved very difficult. Ultimately, the researchers identified eight compounds and three compound derivatives that had a significant effect.</p> <p>While these compounds did not reduce the amount of protein aggregates, they were found to reduce the protein's toxicity and to increase the stability of amyloid fibrils -- a finding that lends further evidence to the theory that smaller assemblies of amyloid-beta known as oligomers, and not the fibrils themselves, are the toxic agents responsible for Alzheimer's symptoms.</p> <p>The researchers hypothesize that by binding snugly to the protein, the compounds they identified may be preventing these smaller oligomers from breaking free of the amyloid-beta fibrils, thus keeping toxicity in check.</p> <p>An estimated 5 million patients in the U.S. suffer from Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. Alzheimer's health care costs in have been estimated at $178 billion per year, including the value of unpaid care for patients provided by nearly 10 million family members and friends.</p> <p>In addition to uncovering compounds with therapeutic potential for Alzheimer's disease, this research presents a new approach for identifying proteins that bind to amyloid fibrils -- an approach that could have broad applications for treating many diseases.</p> <p>Co-authors on the research included Cong Liu, David Leibly, Meytal Landau, Minglei Zhao and Michael Hughes.</p> <p>The research was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institute of Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (grant AG-029430).</p> </div><img src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFjeNSTOXjqewacGcIDonqZWbG53w&url=http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/article/20130727/SPJ04/307270029/Lori-Schuler-Walk-raises-funds-end-Alzheimer-s-disease http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFjeNSTOXjqewacGcIDonqZWbG53w&url=http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/article/20130727/SPJ04/307270029/Lori-Schuler-Walk-raises-funds-end-Alzheimer-s-disease Sat, 27 Jul 2013 08:56:02 +0000 <div id="firefly-password-reset"> <h2 class="black">Reset your password</h2> <div class="body" id="ff_pw_rs_frm"> <p>Enter your email and we will send you a link to reset your password.</p> <form id="firefly-password-reset-form" action=""> <p><label for="fireflymodal_email">Email <input type="email" name="email" placeholder="email@example.com" id="fireflymodal_email" required=""/></label></p> <p><button type="submit" class="primary">Reset my password</button> <button type="reset" class="cancel">Cancel</button></p> <p><button type="reset" class="cancel subprim">OK</button> <button type="submit" class="primary-a">Resend Email</button></p> </form> </div> </div><div id="firefly-cookies"> <h2 class="c19">You must have browser cookies enabled to view our site.</h2> <a class="close" title="Return to Homepage" href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stevenspointjournal.com%2F" rel="home"><img src="http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/odygci/firefly/close-x.png" alt="Close"/></a> <div class="copy gnp">It's possible that your browser cookies are turned off. <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc924805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stevenspointjournal.com%2Ffaq">Read our FAQ page to find out how to enable cookies in your browser.</a></div> </div><div id="firefly-shared-revoked"> <p><img src="http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/odygci/firefly/assets/U009/options-full-digital.jpg"/></p> <h2 class="black">Account issue</h2> <button type="button" class="close" title="Close"><img src="http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/odygci/firefly/close-x.png" alt="Close"/></button> <div class="body"> <p>We're sorry, your shared access privileges have been removed by the subscriber. 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