memory loss

Daily fish oil boosts memory function in older adults

Daily fish oil boosts memory function in older adults

Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center have found positive associations between fish oil supplements and cognitive functioning as well as differences in brain structure between users and non-users of fish oil supplements. The findings suggest possible benefits of fish oil supplements on brain health and aging.

The results were reported at the recent International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, in Paris, France.

The study was led by Lori Daiello, PharmD, a research scientist at the Rhode Island Hospital Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center. Data for the analyses was obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a large multi-center, NIH-funded study that followed older adults with normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease for over three years with periodic memory testing and brain MRIs.

The study included 819 individuals, 117 of whom reported regular use of fish oil supplements before entry and during study follow-up. The researchers compared cognitive functioning and brain atrophy for patients who reported routinely using these supplements to those who were not using fish oil supplements.

Daiello reports that compared to non-users, use of fish oil supplements was associated with better cognitive functioning during the study. However, this association was significant only in those individuals who had a normal baseline cognitive function and in individuals who tested negative for a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease known as APOE4. This is consistent with previous research.

The unique finding, however, is that there was a clear association between fish oil supplements and brain volume. Consistent with the cognitive outcomes, these observations were significant only for those who were APOE4 negative.
Daiello says, “In the imaging analyses for the entire study population, we found a significant positive association between fish oil supplement use and average brain volumes in two critical areas utilized in memory and thinking (cerebral cortex and hippocampus), as well as smaller brain ventricular volumes compared to non-users at any given time in the study. In other words, fish oil use was associated with less brain shrinkage in patients taking these supplements during the ADNI study compared to those who didn’t report using them.”

Daiello continues, “These observations should motivate further study of the possible effects of long-term fish oil supplementation on important markers of cognitive decline and the potential influence of genetics on these outcomes.”

Source: science daily

Parkinson’s boosts creativity: Study

Parkinson's boosts creativity

If you are in a creative profession, Parkinson’s may be a blessing in disguise as researchers have found that patients of the nerve cells disease in the area of brain are more creative than their healthy peers.

Those Parkinson’s patients taking higher doses of medication are more artistic than their less-medicated counterparts, the study added.

“It began with my observation that Parkinson’s patients have a special interest in art and have creative hobbies incompatible with their physical limitations,” said Rivka Inzelberg, professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

For the study, the researchers conducted tests on 27 Parkinson’s patients treated with anti-Parkinson’s drugs and 27 age and education-matched healthy controls.

The tests included the Verbal Fluency exam, in which a person is asked to mention as many different words beginning with a certain letter and in a certain category (fruit, for example) as possible.

The participants were then asked to undergo a more challenging Remote Association Test, in which they had to name a fourth word (following three given words) within a fixed context.

The groups also took the Tel Aviv University Creativity Test, which tested their interpretation of abstract images and assessed the imagination inherent in answers to questions like “What can you do with sandals?”

The final exam was a version of the Test for a Novel Metaphor, adapted specifically for the study.

Throughout the testing, Parkinson’s patients offered more original answers and more thoughtful interpretations than their healthier counterparts.

In order to rule out the possibility that the creative process evident in the hobbies of patients was linked to obsessive compulsions like gambling and hoarding, to which many Parkinson’s patients fall prey, participants were also asked to fill out an extensive questionnaire.

An analysis indicated no correlation between compulsive behaviour and elevated creativity.

The study appeared in the journal Annals of Neurology.

Source: Business Standard

 

Now check your eyes, sense of smell to spot Alzheimer’s early

Now check your eyes, sense of smell to spot Alzheimer's early

New research has revealed that Alzheimer’s key biomarker could be identified in the retina and lens of the eye, moreover, the ability to identify odors might indicate the development of cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease in its early ages.

The study found that the decreased ability to identify odors was significantly associated with loss of brain cell function and progression to Alzheimer’s disease. In two other studies, the level of beta-amyloid detected in the eye was significantly correlated with the burden of beta-amyloid in the brain and allowed researchers to accurately identify the people with Alzheimer’s in the studies.

Beta-amyloid protein is the primary material found in the sticky brain “plaques” characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. It was known to build up in the brain many years before typical Alzheimer’s symptoms of memory loss and other cognitive problems.

Heather Snyder, Ph.D., said that advanced researches were needed in the very promising area of Alzheimer’s biomarkers because early detection was essential for early intervention and prevention, when new treatments become available.

Clinically, at this time it was only possible to detect Alzheimer’s late in its development, when significant brain damage has already occurred, however, biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease might be able to detect it at an earlier stage.

Source: Business standard

Smiling can help fight memory loss

smile

A new study has revealed that humor and laughter can help lessen the damage that stress hormone cortisol has on memory and learning ability in the elderly.

According to the researchers at Loma Linda University, there was a significant decrease in cortisol concentrations among both groups who watched a funny video and showed greater improvement in all areas of the memory assessment when compared to controls.

Gurinder Singh Bains said that their findings offer potential clinical and rehabilitative benefits that can be applied to wellness programs for the elderlyand the cognitive components, such as learning ability and delayed recall, become more challenging as people age and are essential to older adults for an improved quality of life.

The researchers said that the less stress one has the better their memory, as humor reduces detrimental stress hormones like cortisol that decrease memory hippocampal neurons, lowers the blood pressure, and increases blood flow and mood state.
The study revealed that the act of laughter-or simply enjoying some humor-increases the release of endorphins and dopamine in the brain, which provides a sense of pleasure and reward and the positive and beneficial neurochemical changes, in turn, make the immune system function better.

Source: Yahoo news

Laughter may help stave off memory loss

Laughter may help stave off memory loss

Researchers from Loma Linda University in California say that laughter may actually help diminish memory loss and brain damage because it helps reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

In the study, two groups of elderly people – one with diabetes and one healthy – watched a 20-minute comedic video followed by a memory test involving visual recognition, learning ability, and memory recall. A third group of elders took the memory test without watching the video. Researchers measured the cortisol level for all individuals before and after the experiment.

Both groups that watched the video recorded a slight decrease in cortisol levels compared to the group that did not see the funny video. The groups that watched the video also scored higher on the memory test. The group with diabetes received the most benefits from the video based on their cortisol levels and test results.

The results may indicate that laughter leads to better memory because it releases endorphins and dopamine and that lowers stress hormones that can damage neurons in the area of the brain associated with memory.

Source: health central

Regular Aerobic Exercise May Prevent Dementia

Take up regular aerobic exercise to slow down the advance of dementia and other signs of cognitive decline, a study suggests.

Such exercise seems to boost the size of the area of the brain (hippocampus) involved in verbal memory and learning among women whose intellectual capacity has been affected by age.

For the study, the researchers tested the impact of different types of exercise on the hippocampal volume of 86 women who said they had mild memory problems, known as mild cognitive impairment – and a common risk factor for dementia.

All the women were aged between 70 and 80 years old and were living independently at home.

Roughly equal numbers of them were assigned to either twice weekly hour long sessions of aerobic training (brisk walking); or resistance training, such as squats, and weights; or balance and muscle toning exercises, for a period of six months.

The size of their hippocampus was assessed at the start and the end of the six month period by means of an MRI scan, and their verbal memory and learning capacity was assessed before and afterward using a validated test (RAVLT).

Only 29 of the women had before and after MRI scans, but the results showed that the total volume of the hippocampus in the group who had completed the full six months of aerobic training was significantly larger than that of those who had lasted the course doing balance and muscle toning exercises.

The study appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Source: Zee news

Diabetes in Middle Age May Cause Memory Problems

People who develop type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure in middle age appear more likely to suffer brain damage that can contribute to dementia as they grow older, a new study finds.

Diabetes might actually shrink the brain over a long period of time, reducing the size of crucial areas like the hippocampus, which plays an important role in short- and long-term memory, according to the study.

Additionally, diabetes and high blood pressure both seem to increase a person’s risk of micro-strokes and other damage to the blood vessels that feed the brain, the study authors said.

“People who had diabetes earlier in life had much worse brain [structure] than those who had it later in life,” said lead author Dr. Rosebud Roberts, a Mayo Clinic researcher. “These scans are showing us that cognitive impairment happens over a long period of time. The earlier you develop type 2 diabetes, the more likely you are to have damage.”

Diabetes has long been linked to problems with thinking and memory later in life, but this study is the first to provide solid evidence explaining why that occurs, said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach for the Alzheimer’s Association.

“We are very excited about this study,” Fargo said. “It has been known for quite some time that there is some kind of link between diabetes and cognitive ability later in life. What has not been known yet is why this link exists and how it develops over time.”

The study involved more than 1,400 people with an average age of 80, according to the report published online March 19 in the journal Neurology. The study participants had at most slight memory and thinking problems called mild cognitive impairment. The researchers assessed the participants’ thinking and memory skills, noting any signs of mild impairment.

The study participants then underwent MRI brain scans to look for signs of brain damage that can be an early indication of dementia.

Finally, the researchers reviewed the participants’ medical records to see whether they had been diagnosed with diabetes or high blood pressure in middle age, which, for the purposes of this study, ran from 40 to 64.

The study authors found that people who developed diabetes in middle age had brains that were on average 2.9 percent smaller than people who didn’t have diabetes. And their hippocampi were even smaller — an average of 4 percent smaller than those of non-diabetics.

“When your hippocampus begins to shrink, you begin to lose your long-term memory and your ability to remember recent events,” said Roberts, who also is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Source: web md

Alzheimer’s onset could be triggered by sleep disturbances

Researchers have suggested that people, who experience chronic sleep disturbance – either through their work, insomnia or other reasons – could face an earlier onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s. whether this is a cause or effect has been unknown. Now, researchers say individuals with chronic sleep disruptions could face earlier onset of Alzheimer’s.

The researchers, from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, have published the results of their pre-clinical study in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

As a start, the team focused on longitudinal studies that showed individuals who reported chronic sleep problems often develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Sleep disturbances can be caused by a number of factors, including work, stress, insomnia or other factors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), insufficient sleep is associated with chronic conditions and diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression.

“The big biological question that we tried to address in this study is whether sleep disturbance is a risk factor to develop Alzheimer’s or is it something that manifests with the disease,” says lead author Domenico Praticò, professor of pharmacology and microbiology/immunology in the university’s School of Medicine.

After a study researchers says Disruption in synaptic connection impairs brain
Praticò explains that elevated levels of phosphorylated tau can disrupt the synaptic connection of cells or the ability to transport nutrients or chemicals, or transmit electrical signals from cell to cell.

Tau protein is an important part of neuronal cell health, so these elevated levels cause a disturbance in normal function.

“Because of the tau’s abnormal phosphorylation,” Praticò says, “the sleep-deprived mice had a huge disruption of this synaptic connection. This disruption will eventually impair the brain’s ability for learning, forming new memory and other cognitive functions, and contributes to Alzheimer’s disease.”

Since the sleep-deprived mice developed this Alzheimer’s brain pathology before the mice that had normal sleep, the team says sleep disturbances act as a trigger, accelerating these pathological processes and damaging the synaptic connection.

“We conclude from this study that chronic sleep disturbance is an environmental risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” Praticò says. “But the good news is that sleep disturbances can be easily treated, which would hopefully reduce the Alzheimer’s risk.”

The team says correcting sleep disorders could be a “viable therapeutic strategy” to prevent or slow progression of Alzheimer’s disease in people at risk.

Source: Medical news today

 

Eating eggs may halt memory loss and lower the risk of dementia

EGGPLATEScientists are investigating whether eating eggs may prevent memory loss and lower the risk of dementia.

In the six-month U.S. study, half of the participants will have two eggs a day, and will be compared with a control group who won’t have eggs.

Both groups will be tested for memory, reasoning, verbal fluency and attention span – a decline in these is a major risk factor for the development of dementia later in life.
Eggs are one of the best sources of two antioxidants, lutein and zeaxanthin, which previous research suggests can improve cognitive function.

The researchers, from Tufts University in the U.S., expect there will be ‘a significant increase’ in the mental functioning in the group given eggs.

Super-laser targets ugly caesarean scars
Laser therapy is being tested as a way to reduce caesarean scarring. One in four births in this country is now by caesarean and the surgery can leave a prominent, raised or even painful scar across the abdomen.

Now, a clinical trial is looking at laser therapy to tackle this. The light is thought to trigger chemical reactions in the skin, which stimulates the growth of new tissue, as well as ‘remodelling’ the scar tissue.

The device being tested is six times more powerful than other types of lasers, and is said to penetrate four times deeper into the abdominal tissue, up to 4mm.
Women on the Danish trial at Aarhus University Hospital will have three treatments – scar thickness will be measured before and after.

Cabbage patch to soothe sore joints

Could covering your knee with cabbage ease sore joints?
Cabbage, which is shredded and mixed with warm water to form a poultice, has been used as a traditional remedy for joint pain and skin complaints.

Now, doctors are comparing the benefits of a cabbage poultice with diclofenac gel, an anti-inflammatory commonly used to ease joint pain.

Around 80 people with osteoarthritis of the knee will be given the cabbage dressing, the gel or their usual care, in the trial at Universitat Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Just how cabbage might help is not clear, but it contains glutamine, a constituent of glucosamine – this compound occurs naturally in the body and plays a role in building cartilage.

Source: Daily Mail

One Week of Junk Food May Be Enough to Damage Your Memory

 

Everyone knows that junk food is bad for the waistline, but new research suggests it can damage memory, too.
Australian researchers found that even a short term diet of junk food can have a detrimental effect on the brain’s cognitive ability.
The study suggests that obesity can trigger rapid changes in the brain.

Scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) showed for the first time that rats fed a diet high in fat and sugar had impaired memory after just a week.

Interestingly, the results were similarly poor for the rats fed a healthy diet that had been given sugar water to drink, according to the study, which was published in the journal Brain, Behaviour and Immunity.

The animals found it more difficult to recognise specific places after their junk food diet and showed a lesser ability to notice when an object shifted to a new location.
The mice also had inflammation of the hippocampal region of the brain, which is associated with spatial memory.

‘We know that obesity causes inflammation in the body, but we didn’t realise until recently that it also causes changes in the brain,’ said Professor Margaret Morris from UNSW Medicine, who co-authored the study.

‘What is so surprising about this research is the speed with which the deterioration of the cognition occurred,’ she said.
‘Our preliminary data also suggests that the damage is not reversed when the rats are switched back to a healthy diet, which is very concerning.’

Some aspects of the animals’ memories were spared, regardless of their diets.
All the animals were equally able to recognise objects after eating either the healthy, healthy with sugar or ‘cafeteria’ diets, the latter of which was high in fat and sugar, including cake, chips and biscuits.
The change in the animals’ memory appeared even before the mice eating junk food gained any weight.
Ongoing work will attempt to establish how to stop the inflammation in the brain of animals with the unhealthy diets, which could unlock secrets relating to humans who eat unhealthily.
‘We suspect that these findings may be relevant to people,’ said Professor Morris.
‘While nutrition affects the brain at every age, it is critical as we get older and may be important in preventing cognitive decline. An elderly person with poor diet may be more likely to have problems.’

The research builds on previous work that has implications for obesity.
‘Given that high energy foods can impair the function of the hippocampus, if you eat a lot of them it may contribute to weight gain, by interfering with your episodic memory,’ Professor Morris said.
‘People might be less aware of their internal cues like hunger pangs and knowing when they have had enough,’ she said.

Source: mail online