For Emmy-award winning actor Hector Elizondo, the challenges of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s dementia are very personal. In the 1960s, Elizondo’s mother was afflicted with Alzheimer’s dementia, a degenerative disease that alters the brain, causing impaired thinking, memory, and attention. For Elizondo’s father, the primary caregiver, taking care of his wife was [...]
Walter J. Lukiw, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Ophthalmology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, is the lead author of a paper identifying, for the first time, a specific function of a fragment of ribonucleic acid (RNA), once thought to be no more than a byproduct, in regulating inflammation and the development of [...]
The only known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease slows down the brain’s ability to export a toxic protein known as amyloid-beta that is central to the damage the disease causes, scientists have found. The research, published by the Journal of Clinical Investigation, provides new clues into the workings of a protein known as apolipoprotein [...]
Accera, Inc., a biotechnology company delivering breakthrough therapies in central nervous system (CNS) diseases, will launch Axona in the United States for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the first quarter of 2009. The commercial launch of Axona will be funded by the company’s recent Series C equity financing. Axona is a new first-in-class medical food product [...]
To bring awareness about a devastating disease that affects thousands of Kentuckians and their families, Gov. Steve Beshear has proclaimed November Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month in Kentucky. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of the brain diseases known as dementia. AD is a progressive, degenerative brain disease that often starts with slight memory [...]
Ginkgo Biloba is the latest supplement shown in randomized clinical trials to be of no benefit in the prevention of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Long thought to be of use in the preservation of memory, Ginkgo biloba has worldwide sales of $249 million annually. Now a new trial published in the Journal of the American [...]
According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2008 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report, more than 40 percent of the 10 million American unpaid caregivers rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high. However, according to a BHG.com online survey of 1,340 respondents, nearly 60 percent of respondents say gardening relaxes them. This November, [...]
The adult children of people diagnosed with inherited Alzheimer’s disease are the focus of a new study to better understand the biology of the disease. Researchers are seeking 300 volunteers with a biological parent with a known genetic mutation causing rare and typically early-onset forms of the disorder to join the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Disease [...]
Red wine has many health benefits. We know it is good for cardiovascular health. Alzheimer’s disease researchers at UCLA have now discovered how red wine might prevent and provide treatment existing Alzheimer’s disease. David Teplow, a UCLA professor of neurology, and colleagues discuss their findings in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of Biological [...]
A new study shows that a drug that increases the release of growth hormone failed to slow the rate of progression of Alzheimer’s disease in humans. Growth hormone is naturally produced in the body and stimulates the release of another hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Studies on mice have suggested that IGF-1 helps reduce [...]
