Alzheimer's disease

It causes familial Alzheimer's disease and pathophysiologically shows very similar lesions to those found in non-familial Alzheimer's disease.

Although it affects men and women at nearly the same rates (women are slightly more likely to get Alzheimer's disease than men), Alzheimer's disease has particular relevance for women, notes Laurel Coleman, MD, a member of the Alzheimer's Association's board of directors and a practicing geriatrician in Augusta, ME.

The researchers obtained spinal fluid from 51 people whom doctors had judged to have Alzheimer's disease, 30 people with other forms of dementia, 19 people who had brain disorders not associated with dementia, and 31 healthy individuals.

Use of medications in the Alzheimer's Disease population: physician and caregiver perspectives.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (the injury treatment of choice for many runners) have been associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease to such an extent that researchers are studying the possibility of treating Alzheimer's with NSAIDs.

Further, Alzheimer's disease pathology already was present to a large degree in people who died with mild cognitive impairment.

Since care providers did not understand Alzheimer's disease, common behaviors associated with this disease, such as agitation, wandering and repetitive actions, were misunderstood.

Now the women are in their 80s, and nearly a third have developed Alzheimer's disease - an incidence similar to that found in the general population.

National direct and indirect annual costs of caring for individuals with Alzheimer's disease are at least $100 billion, according to estimates used by the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging.

Today, he says, it's most likely that there are two primary causes of dementia: an Alzheimer's disease type "pathology," represented by the neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques of the disease, and vascular dementia, resulting from significant changes in blood vessels in the brain.

Most neuroscientists favor the hypothesis that beta-amyloid triggers the brain-cell loss in Alzheimer's disease, but some argue that tau is equally, if not more, important.

More has been learned about Alzheimer's disease in the past few years than in all of the last century.

This is the first year that special breakout sessions will be offered to persons with Alzheimer's disease or related disorders.

Turns out that regular physical activity can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease by up to 50 percent in all individuals, and up to 60 percent for women with high levels of physical activity.

For the first time, research has linked the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia to elevated blood concentrations of the amino acid homocysteine.