Category Archives: Alzheimer’s Daily News

Keep abreast of the latest developments in Alzheimer’s treatment, clinical drug trials, research, caregiving strategies, local/national conferences and much more.

Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Isn’t Always Accurate


(Source: Detroit Free Press) – Martin Rosenfeld called too many times – confused and frustrated – from a parking lot outside his synagogue, after driving there in the middle of the night for services that wouldn’t begin for hours. His loved ones dreaded a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Rosenfeld now nodded off mid-conversation, spilled things and mumbled. “We’d be getting calls all night long. He’d say, ‘What time is it? Can I get up now?’ ” said his daughter, Shelley Rosenberg. [...]

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Alzheimer’s Gene Causes Brain’s Blood Vessels to Leak Toxins and Die


(Source: ScienceDaily) – A well-known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease triggers a cascade of signaling that ultimately results in leaky blood vessels in the brain, allowing toxic substances to pour into brain tissue in large amounts, scientists report. The scientists investigated why the ApoE4 gene makes people more prone to developing Alzheimer’s. People who carry two copies of the gene have roughly eight to 10 times the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease than people who do not. Scientists from [...]

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Promising Alzheimer’s Research Delayed by Shortage of Volunteer Patients


(Source: CBS News) – In Bethesda, MD, Monday, the National Institutes of Health began hosting a two-day summit on the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Yet the researchers trying to defeat the disease are facing an unexpected hurdle. In the largest clinical study ever done on Alzheimer’s disease, almost 500 patients have submitted to MRI scans, PET scans and even spinal taps. The researchers hope to invent the first test to find Alzheimer’s before a patient loses any memory – or [...]

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Critics Call Government’s Alzheimer’s Plan Unrealistic


(Source: ABC News) – The Obama administration and the National Institutes of Health have homed in on Alzheimer’s disease, setting an ambitious goal to have an effective treatment for the brain-wasting disease by 2025. The plan is intended to give a “clear, national focus and attention on Alzheimer’s that we’ve given to other diseases,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. But Alzheimer’s disease experts’ reactions to the pledge are less optimistic: Some say giving more attention to the disease can only [...]

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Soldiers May Suffer Same Brain Injuries as Football Players


(Source: Statesman.com) – A small study raises more concern about the long-term consequences of brain injuries suffered by thousands of soldiers suggesting they may be at risk of developing the same degenerative brain disease as some retired football players. Autopsies of four young veterans found early signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in the brain tissue, Boston researchers reported. They compared the brain tissue of some of the youngest athletes ever found with signs of early CTE, in their [...]

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New Drug Trial Seeks to Stop Alzheimer’s Before It Starts


(Source: New York Times) – In a clinical trial that could lead to treatments that prevent Alzheimer’s, people who are genetically guaranteed to develop the disease – but who do not yet have any symptoms – will, for the first time, be given a drug intended to stop it, federal officials announced Tuesday. Experts say the study will be one of the few ever conducted to test prevention treatments for any genetically predestined disease. For Alzheimer’s, the trial is unprecedented, [...]

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Intimacy and Sexuality … Why Do People Change; Alzheimer’s Disease


(Source: Cambridge Health) – Intimacy is the special bond we share with a person we love and respect. It involves the way we talk and act toward one another. This bond can exist between spouses or partners, family members, and friends. Alzheimer’s disease often changes the intimacy between people. Alzheimer’s disease can cause changes in intimacy and sexuality in both the person with Alzheimer’s disease and the caregiver. The person with Alzheimer’s disease may be stressed by the changes in [...]

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Inside the Mind of Frontotemporal Degeneration


(Source: Forbes) – A patient with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) talks about what it’s like to live with the disease that stole her career. Diana, a single woman, is not exactly a wallflower. She never has been, but being affected by frontotemporal degeneration has only brought her no-nonsense tendencies out more. And, as a single woman, Diana worries about the growing number of women in similar boats: Aging baby-boomers who never married or partnered, now finding themselves battling any type of [...]

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For Dementia Patients, Feeding Tubes May Increase Bed Sores


(Source: HealthDay News) – Feeding tubes increase the risk of bed sores in bedridden dementia patients, according to a new study. The finding challenges the long-held belief that providing nutrition through feeding tubes helps prevent bed sores or helps promote their healing in this group of patients, the authors of the Brown University-led study said. The researchers noted that feeding tubes can cause agitation in patients, who then have to be restrained and sedated. Feeding tubes also may increase the [...]

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Cancer Tools Help Roche Push Ahead With Alzheimer’s Drug


(Source: Business Week) – Roche Holding AG is focusing part of its pipeline on the riskiest area of drug development: the human brain. The Swiss drugmaker had its last top-selling brain therapy when Valium revolutionized anxiety treatment in the 1960s. Now Roche is betting it can use the tools that have since made it the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs to penetrate the “black box” of Alzheimer’s and autism, CEO Severin Schwan said. Eli Lilly and Pfizer plan to [...]

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