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Marijuana compound removes toxic Alzheimer's protein from the brain An active compound in marijuana called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been found to promote the removal of toxic clumps of amyloid beta protein in the brain, which are thought to kickstart the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The finding supports the results of previous studies that found evidence of the protective effects of cannabinoids, including THC, on patients with neurodegenerative disease. "Although other studies have offered evidence that cannabinoids might be neuroprotective against the symptoms of Alzheimer's, we believe our study is the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids affect both inflammation and amyloid...

The lanky Tennessee farm girl they nicknamed "Bone" grew to heights that no one could have anticipated. She traveled the world, became a kind of surrogate mom to hundreds of daughters and helped fundamentally change collegiate athletics. She was born on Flag Day, June 14, 1952, and personified the American Dream. Like most iconic figures, she inspired an almost mythical kind of devotion. But how could someone be so larger-than-life magnificent and yet so humbly warm and real? That was the essence of Pat Summitt, the longtime Tennessee women's basketball coach who died Tuesday morning at age 64, nearly five...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Pat Summitt's family said Sunday that the last few days have been difficult for the former Tennessee women's basketball coach as her Alzheimer's disease progresses.

But it does revolve around the conceit that the 40th president had no knowledge of where he was or what he was doing throughout his entire second term. The protagonist is Frank Corden, a low-level White House aide with a sweetly idealized view of American democracy. The first clues that Reagan is not in his right mind come early on: As Frank prepares coffee for Reagan re-election staffers, he overhears Treasury Secretary Don Regan (depicted as a stern, mentor-like figure) in a heated phone conversation with Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (cartoonishly abusive, he's described as "all Brylcreem and forehead...

Will Ferrell has backed out of a comedy about Ronald Reagan’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease following outrage from the former president’s family. The 48-year-old comic confirmed Friday that while he had seen the script and considered signing on to star and produce “Reagan”, he was no longer going ahead with the project.

Patti Davis, daughter of late President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, penned an open letter Thursday to Will Ferrell, criticizing the actor for agreeing to play the 40th president in an upcoming satirical film about his battle with dementia. “I saw the news bulletin — as did everyone — that you intend to portray my father in the throes of Alzheimer’s for a comedy that you are also producing,” Ms. Davis, a former actress, wrote in her blog. “Perhaps you have managed to retain some ignorance about Alzheimer’s and other versions of dementia. Perhaps if you knew more, you would...

Scientists from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Glasgow University injected mice with a protein called IL-33 on a daily basis, which resulted in a full reversal in cognitive decline and the symptoms of Alzheimer’s in a matter of days. Though the tests have so far been limited to rodents, the team believes it possible that the same technique could be used to treat human patients. The mice had been bred to exhibit the same kinds of symptoms as those of Alzheimer’s, though within a week were brought back to their prior cognitive capacities with the protein injections....

Alzheimer’s disease could be caused by viruses like herpes, a group of renowned dementia experts have warned, as they call for urgent investigation into the link. The worldwide team of 31 senior scientists and clinicians, which include specialists from Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester Universities and Imperial College, have written an editorial which suggests that microbes are the major cause of dementia. The herpes virus - the type which causes cold sores - and chlamydia bacteria are named as the major culprits, as well as a type of corkscrew-shaped bacteria called spirochaete. “There is incontrovertible evidence that Alzheimer’s Disease has...

Former first lady Nancy Reagan has died at the age of 94, according to TMZ. She married Ronald Reagan in 1952 and served as first lady in from 1981 to 1989.

A scientist whose major breakthroughs have emerged from studying the brains of Irish families says we are only five to 10 years away from a cure for Alzheimer's disease. In a recent interview with the Irish Times, Professor Tim Lynch, currently with the Dublin Neurological Institute at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, recounted the discovery he made while working in New York almost 20 years ago, which changed the course of his research. In 1994, Lynch was part of a team studying frontotemporal dementia in an Irish American family at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. The team discovered that...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called for an end of "over-policing" in black neighborhoods during the PBS Democratic presidential debate in Milwaukee, Wis., on Thursday night. "What we have to do is end over-policing in African-American neighborhoods. The reality is that both the African-American community and the white community do marijuana at about equal rates," Sanders said. "The reality is four times as many blacks get arrested for marijuana. Truth is that far more blacks get stopped for traffic violations." An undecided voter via Facebook wrote: "Wisconsin is number one in African-American male incarceration, according to a University...

The United States of America, 2020 President Hillary Clinton has been in office since January of 2017, after defeating Donald J. Trump in the closest and most litigated election in American history. Disliked as a candidate by the right, as President she is despised by Congress and most Americans, who are now well aware that an incompetent criminal sits in the Oval Office. The vast social engineering of the US military that rode roughshod over the armed services under Barack Obama is now legal policy. Open homosexuality is common in all branches. Transgenders who have undergone sex change operations, those...

The disease is not normally infectious, but people who received grafts from cadavers did show telltale markers in their brains For the second time in four months, researchers have reported autopsy results that suggest Alzheimer's disease might occasionally be transmitted to people during certain medical treatments--although scientists say that neither set of findings is conclusive. The latest autopsies, described in the Swiss Medical Weekly on January 26, were conducted on the brains of seven people who died of the rare, brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Decades before their deaths, the individuals had all received surgical grafts of dura mater--the membrane that...

The Alzheimer’s pandemic has long been a dark riddle. What are its causes? Why has it apparently become much more widespread just in the last few generations? Why does it afflict some nations more aggressively than others? Why do twice as many women suffer from it than men? And what can we do to fight back against this terrible, incurable disease? These crucial questions have long remained unanswered. But a new study by Yale School of Public Health offers some possible answers—answers with implications for both the young and the old. According to the study, the main cause of Alzheimer’s...

Hillary Clinton is laying out an aggressive plan to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease within a decade, which she says will be achieved by a dramatically boosting spending by four times the current levels. The Democratic presidential front-runner vows to spend $2 billion per year "to prevent, effectively treat and make a cure possible by 2025." She will announce her plan at a campaign stop in Iowa later on Tuesday. The annual $2 billion in spending will be part of a "historic, decade-long investment" that would bring up spending levels from the $586 million spent by the National Institutes...

From his Daughter Tres: It is with a broken heart that my father is succumbing to Alzheimer's. After falling three weeks ago, a small hemmorage in his brain, and three weeks of hospital/nursing home, he is mentally and physically disintegrating. I weep, knowing he is not long on this earthly plane; cussing at him today to get him to open his mouth to eat the pureed food, as his swallowing mechanism isn't functioning so well, but then alas, he opens his mouth for ice cream... I break down, laying my head on his chest, and the first sign of recognition,...

The world consoles, commiserates with France in it's time of sorrow and tragedy, demonstrating its support, at least symbolically with Gallic-themed tokens of condolences in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Here is just one example, one of myriad items to show the terrorists that they can kill the French but can they create such pretty commemorative items on such short notice? I don't recall seeing a single item like this in the aftermath of 9/11. And no, I was not a cheese-eating, smelly Froggie yesterday unlike others who seem to have been a Frenchman, even if having to hold...

Since last year, when her husband died unexpectedly in a Davidson County hospital, Francine Braun Wolberg’s grief has given way to anger over the long wait for answers. Her husband suffered from early onset Alzheimer’s, but he was otherwise healthy before going to the Thomasville Medical Center for mental health treatment. State Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Deborah Radisch performed an autopsy in Raleigh on June 12, 2014, the day after he died. But months later, there was still no death certificate listing the cause of death. That meant that Wolberg couldn’t collect survivor’s annuity payments needed to pay college tuition...

I don't know if you can believe the National Enquirer but the front page of the latest issue says she has a brain tumor, blood clots, MS, and is an alcoholic. Doctors are saying she has about six months to live. If this is not true then I think this is a bit too much for the National Enquirer to be printing this stuff.

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Researchers in the US have developed an implant to help a disabled brain encode memories, giving new hope to Alzheimer’s sufferers and wounded soldiers who cannot remember the recent past. The prosthetic, developed at the University of Southern California and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre in a decade-long collaboration, includes a small array of electrodes implanted into the brain. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this...