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Centuries after Shakespeare wrote about King Lear's symptoms, there's still no perfect way to care for sufferers of dementia and Alzheimer's. In the Netherlands, however, a radical idea is being tested: Self-contained "villages" where people with dementia shop, cook, and live together—safely. We, as a population, are aging rapidly. According to the Alzheimer's Association, one in three seniors today dies with dementia. The process of finding—and paying for—long-term care can be very confusing, unfortunately, and difficult for both loved ones and patients. Most caretakers are underpaid, overworked, and must drive far distances to their jobs—giving away some 17 billion unpaid...

Famed former CNN host Larry King said he has never heard of Juanita Broaddrick Thursday in an interview with Steve Malzberg on Newsmax TV. Broadrrick, a former Arkansas nursing home worker, accused President Clinton of raping her during the late 1970s in a 1998 Dateline interview. Malzberg was describing a double standard of media coverage during the 2012 conventions, noting left wing pundits dubbed the GOP convention a “convention of rapists” while remaining silent on President Clinton’s keynote address despite sexual assault allegations directed against the former president. King interjected “Hold up, hold up. Stop! Bill Clinton was accused of...

Research shows people with higher levels of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil may also have larger brain volumes in old age This would be the equivalent to preserving one or two years of brain health. Eating more fish could give you a bigger brain - and greater protection against diseases such as Alzheimer’s, claim researchers. They found people with higher levels of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil may also have larger brain volumes in old age. This would be the equivalent to preserving one to two years of brain health, says a new study...

A first-of-its kind study set to be released Monday finds that older adults who engaged in brain training drills retained measurable benefits up to 10 years later, suggesting that such interventions may help stave off impairments of aging that rob seniors of their independence. The latest trial found that nearly three-quarters of those who participated in reasoning exercises and information-processing drills still displayed those abilities a decade later.

Larry Speakes, who spent six years as acting press secretary for President Ronald Reagan, died Friday in his native Mississippi. He was 74. Speakes died at home in Cleveland, Miss., where he had lived the past several years. Bolivar County Coroner Nate Brown said Speakes had Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers say vitamin E might slow the progression of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease -- the first time any treatment has been shown to alter the course of dementia at that stage. In a study of more than 600 older veterans, high doses of the vitamin delayed the decline in daily living skills, such as making meals, getting dressed and holding a conversation, by about six months over a two-year period. Vitamin E did not preserve thinking abilities, though, and it did no good for patients who took it with another Alzheimer's medication. But those taking vitamin E alone required less help...

Alzheimer’s and diabetes may be the same disease, scientists claim. They have uncovered evidence that the debilitating form of dementia may be late stages of type 2 diabetes. The discovery would explain why nearly three quarters of patients with this form of diabetes go on to develop Alzheimer’s. Researchers from Albany University, New York State, believe the excess insulin they produce gets into the brain and disrupts key chemicals. Eventually masses of amyloid proteins—which poison brain cells—are created because of the excess which leads to Alzheimers, they say. …

It’s tempting to call David Perlmutter’s dietary advice radical. The neurologist and president of the Perlmutter Health Center in Naples, Fla., believes all carbs, including highly touted whole grains, are devastating to our brains. He claims we must make major changes in our eating habits as a society to ward off terrifying increases in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia rates. And yet Perlmutter argues that his recommendations are not radical at all. In fact, he says, his suggested menu adheres more closely to the way mankind has eaten for most of human history. What’s deviant, he insists, is our modern diet....

SCIENTISTS have hailed a historic "turning point" in the search for a medicine that could beat Alzheimer's disease, after a drug-like compound was used to halt brain cell death in mice for the first time. Although the prospect of a pill for Alzheimer's remains a long way off, the landmark British study provides a major new pathway for future drug treatments. The compound works by blocking a faulty signal in brains affected by neurodegenerative diseases. The signal shuts down the production of essential proteins, leading to brain cells being unprotected and dying off. The compound was tested in mice with...

PET imaging may have the capacity not only to diagnose the disease in a living person, but also to track its progression. Many diagnostic methods have targeted amyloid-beta, and with good reason, since this form of “brain gunk,” or plaques, is a key element in the disease. But this new research tags a protein called tau, which forms the well-known “tangles” in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of dementia and neurodegenerative disease. The researchers feel that using PET scans to visualize what’s going on in the brain may be a complement to amyloid-beta imaging, and...

Researchers have discovered a protein that they claim is the missing link to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. They found that blocking this protein with an existing drug can restore memory in mice with brain damage that mimics the disease. The findings could offer hope of developing drugs to slow the degenerative illness.'What is very exciting is that of all the links in this molecular chain, this is the protein that may be most easily targeted by drugs,' said the study’s senior author Stephen Strittmatter at Yale School of Medicine.'This gives us strong hope that we can find a drug...

It’s an inconvenient truth of aging: In our 30s and up, it gets increasingly harder for most of us to recall names, faces, and details from the past. Scientists have long debated whether this gradual decline is an early form of Alzheimer’s disease—a neurodegenerative condition that leads to severe dementia—or a distinct neurological process. Now, researchers have found a protein that distinguishes typical forgetfulness from Alzheimer’s and could lead to potential treatments for age-related memory loss. Previous studies have shown that Alzheimer’s disease and age-related memory loss involve different neural circuits in the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure in the brain...

Eating too much red meat could trigger Alzheimer’s, suggests new research. Scientists found that a buildup of iron—abundant in red meat—could cause oxidant damage, to which the brain is particularly vulnerable. Researchers say this could in turn increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. Professor George Bartzokis, of UCLA in the United States, said that more studies have suggested the disease is caused by one of two proteins, one called tau, the other beta-amyloid. …

In the new study, the team from Harvard randomly assigned 60 elderly people to drink two cups of flavanol-rich or flavanol-poor cocoa every day for a month. There weren't any overall differences between the high- and low-flavanol groups in terms of cognitive abilities, so the researchers looked a little deeper. They found that people who had compromised blood flow to the brain and white matter damage at the beginning of the study did show a difference after drinking the cocoa for a month: Blood flow in their brains improved by about 8%, and the time it took them to complete...

Chester, NJ—A recent clinical trial published in Phytotherapy Research indicated that a high-absorption curcumin (BCM-95 from Dolcas Biotech, based here) had similar effects as a generic form of Prozac (fluoxetine) on depression, sans the adverse effects. “It is a novel and surprising application for this natural medicine,” said Ajay Goel, Ph.D., Baylor Research Institute and Charles A Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor University Medical Center and study co-author. “People with depression have higher levels of inflammation in the brain. Also, people with depression have lower levels of neurogenesis in the brain, meaning they make fewer new brain cells than people with no...

The brain works like a complex machine, sending electrical signals that allow us to perceive and understand the world around us. Now, scientists have discovered a new system in this brain that acts as a "garbage truck," removing waste that might affect the brain. The findings could have large implications for treating neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease. The body defends the brain like a fortress, ringing it with a complex system of gateways that control which molecules can enter and exit. This "blood-brain barrier" was known to exist for quite some time, but it's only now that researchers are beginning...

Drugs that are used for treating Alzheimer's disease in its early stages are linked to a reduced risk of heart attacks and death, according to a large study of over 7,000 people with Alzheimer's disease in Sweden.The research, which is published online today (Wednesday) in the European Heart Journal [1], looked at cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs), such as donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine, which are used for treating mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease [2]. Side-effects of ChEIs include a beneficial effect on the vagus nerve, which controls the rate at which the heart beats, and some experimental studies have suggested that ChEIs...

UK researchers have found that high doses B-vitamins – including folic acid, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 – can slow down brain tissue atrophy, a wasting process associated with Alzheimer’s disease.David Smith of the University of Oxford, and colleagues, used randomised controlled trials to test the long-term effects of B-vitamins on the brain health of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment, who were classed as having an increased risk of dementia. They found the brains of those treated with B-vitamins shrank less over a two year period than those given a placebo, and experienced less atrophy in regions of grey...

A new study may stimulate the old adage of respecting your elders; it says the general level of intelligence in the Western Hemisphere has declined since the Victorian Era. The study claims the IQ numbers are 14 points lower than from the 19th century. One of the authors of the study, Dr. Jan te Nijenhuis, professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam, says the cause of the movement toward stupidity is that smarter women have fewer children while those of lower intelligence have more children. But Dr. Gerald Crabtree, professor of pathology and developmental biology at...

Abstract: Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and...