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CNN: Women who have given birth five or more times may be 70% more likely to develop Alzheimer's later in life than those who have fewer births, according to a new study of more than 3,500 women in South Korea and Greece. Even women without dementia who had given birth five or more times scored lower on a commonly used cognitive test than those with fewer children. READ MORE
Time: Name practically any disease or condition that afflicts the human body and there’s probably a good test for detecting it — preferably early, when there’s a chance that promising treatments can slow it down or even cure it. Cancer, inherited forms of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and even certain mental illnesses can be picked up by tracking hormones, genes or other things circulating in the body. But that hasn’t been the case with Alzheimer’s disease, the neurodegenerative condition that was first described in 1906, and more than a century later, still doesn’t have a blood test or brain scan that can diagnose it conclusively. READ MORE
Photonics: A superresolution nanoscope could enable 3D imaging of amyloid plaques — a characteristic feature of Alzheimer’s disease — with up to 10 times greater detail than conventional microscopes. Researchers at Purdue University combined active shaping of point spread functions and adaptive optics to enable robust 3D single-molecule switching nanoscopy (SMSN) imaging within tissues. They used the technology to image through 30-μm-thick brain sections in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. They were able to visualize and reconstruct the morphology and the nanoscale details of amyloid-β filaments. READ MORE
Harvard Health Watch: Anticholinergic medications used to treat bladder conditions, Parkinson's disease, and depression are associated with an increased risk of dementia, according to a large study published online April 25, 2018, by The BMJ. Anticholinergic drugs help to contract and relax muscles. They work by blocking acetylcholine, a substance that also transmits messages in the nervous system. In the study, researchers compared the medical records of 40,770 people older than 65 who were diagnosed with dementia and 283,933 seniors without. READ MORE
Forbes: In this article in my series on dementia care, I want to focus on how government and healthcare leaders can integrate innovative approaches to dementia care into traditional models of care. This is often a challenge, especially when we talk about non-medical approaches. These include many of the approaches discussed in my previous articles, like environmental modifications and new technologies. The challenges range from operational complexities to regulatory challenges, and everything in between. Healthcare regulators need to determine the standards by which non-medical approaches are approved. Healthcare leaders need to determine how best to implement these approaches in the often highly fragmented healthcare space. And healthcare payers and policymakers need to collectively determine how to cover costs. To fully integrate these new approaches, we need a change in the culture of care. READ MORE
