Pesticide DDT linked to Alzheimer's disease - study

WASHINGTON DC -- Exposure to the pesticide DDT, which was banned in the United States since 1972 but still being used in some countries, may increase the risk and severity of Alzheimer's disease in some people, a US study said Monday.

The study, published online in the US journal JAMA Neurology, found patients with Alzheimer's disease have significantly higher levels of DDE, the chemical compound left when DDT breaks down, in their blood than healthy people.

Of the 86 Alzheimer's patients involved in the study, 74 people, whose average age was 74, had DDE blood levels almost four times higher than the 79 people in the control group who did not have Alzheimer's disease, researchers from the Rutgers University, the Emory University and the University of Texas said.

"Our data may help identify those that are at risk for Alzheimer's disease and could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and an improved outcome," lead author Jason Richardson, assistant professor of the Rutgers University, said in a statement.

The researchers said DDT and DDE could increase the amount of a protein associated with plaques believed to be a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. These sticky amyloid proteins, which may form in regions of the brain involved in memory, learning, and thinking, break off and clump together in the brain and increase as the disease progresses.

This new research is important, Richardson said, because it suggests that DDT and DDE may directly contribute to the process of plaque development.

DDE levels, however, weren't the sole determinant of whether someone gets Alzheimer's. Some Alzheimer's patients in the current study had non-detectable levels of DDE and some healthy control samples had DDE levels that were relatively high.

The researchers said that a gene called ApoE4 may combine with environmental exposures to drive disease development.

"We need to conduct further research to determine whether this occurs and how the chemical compound interacts with the ApoE4 gene," Richardson said.

In the United States, DDT was used extensively in agriculture and for mosquito control from the 1940s until it was banned in 1972.

Concerns over DDT's effects on wildlife, especially birds, played an important role in the history of the environmental movement. Around the world, DDT's use continued in many countries until more recently.

source: interaksyon.com

Poetry breaks through fog of Alzheimer's sufferers

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON - The teenager's voice breaks the silence that hangs over the dozing, grey-haired figures. "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you," she recites -- "you'll be a man, my son," finishes one of the pensioners, with a burst of recognition.

Alzheimer's has stolen most of Margaret's memories, but she can still remember the line from Rudyard Kipling's famous poem that she learnt years ago, a rare moment of clarity in the fog of the cruel disease.

This retirement home in central England is one of many institutions and hospitals across the country turning to poetry to provide some respite from the symptoms of dementia, such as the loss of memory, communication and basic skills.

While it provides no cure, the rhythm and pace of well-known verse can act as a trigger for memories and speech, according to Jill Fraser, whose charity "Kissing it Better" organizes reading sessions for the elderly.

If patients "hear one word that they can remember from poetry, it brightens their day up," adds Elaine Gibbs, who runs the Hylands House retirement home in Stratford-upon-Avon -- fittingly, the home of William Shakespeare.

Miriam Cowley, elegant in a flowered dress and her grey hair tied up into a bun, listens attentively as a teenager reads her "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth.

"I did know the poem but I've forgotten it. I learnt it when I was a kid at school, a long time ago," said the retired teacher, who suffers from short-term memory loss.

"It brings back good memories. I will have some good dreams after that, dreams of daffodils, of trees."

'The poetry broke open the dam'

The home can be a sombre place because of the prevalence of residents with Alzheimer's, dubbed "the long good-bye" because of the way it slowly steals away everything that makes a person who they are.

But as a woman bashes a plate incessantly against a table at one end of the room, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings, one of the teenage volunteer readers says spending time there "gives you a real buzz."

"You come in here and everyone is sitting there by themselves," says Hannah Ciotkowski, 15. Then when someone starts reading a poem aloud "you can immediately see life in them, they are smiling."

"It's wonderful when suddenly they join in with a line," adds Anita Wright, an 81-year-old former actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company who also reads poetry at Hylands.

She recalls how one patient with advanced dementia broke down in tears when she heard a poem about a man bidding farewell to his lover, and started recounting how her fiance had died.

"She had not said a single word since she had been to this home and the poem just broke open the dam," Wright said.

Lyn Darnley, head of voice at the RSC, says poetry can be very powerful.

"These rhythms run deeply inside of us and poetry can touch and spark memories of not just emotions but the deep senses of language," she told AFP.

Experts caution that poetry will not halt the onslaught of dementia, which affects 800,000 people in Britain.

"Poetry does not cure dementia," says Dave Bell, a specialist nurse with Dementia UK, a charity which works to improve the quality of life for people affected by the disease.

"But there is a sense of achievement and self-esteem for the person because they can remember something," he says, adding that it also helps them connect with other people.

Fifteen-year-old Hannah is certainly convinced: "I hope that when I am old, people will come visit me, read to me, and sing to me."

source: interaksyon.com

Memory decline may be earliest sign of dementia

BOSTON — Memory problems that are often dismissed as a normal part of aging may not be so harmless after all.

Noticing you have had a decline beyond the occasional misplaced car keys or forgotten name could be the very earliest sign of Alzheimer's, several research teams are reporting.

Doctors often regard people who complain that their memory is slipping as "the worried well," but the new studies show they may well have reason to worry, said Maria Carrillo, a senior scientist at the Alzheimer's Association.

One study found that self-reported memory changes preceded broader mental decline by about six years. Another tied these changes to evidence on brain scans that dementia is setting in.

"Maybe these people know something about themselves" that their doctors don't, "and maybe we should pay attention to them," said Dorene Rentz, a Massachusetts General Hospital psychologist. She helped run one of the studies, which were discussed Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston.

About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's disease is the most common type. It causes a slow decline in thinking and reasoning ability. Memory trouble that disrupts daily life is one symptom.



Don't panic, though: The researchers are not talking about "senior moments," those small, temporary lapses most everyone has, said Creighton Phelps, a neuroscientist with the U.S. National Institute on Aging. They are talking about real memory loss, in which the information doesn't come back to you later, not even when people remind you of what you forgot, he explained.

A true decline is a change in your normal pattern. "You're starting to forget things now that you normally didn't — doctor appointments, luncheon engagements, the kids are coming over ... things that a year or two ago you wouldn't," said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

Pati Hoffman, of Carol Stream, Ill., near Chicago, used to design menus and organize events for restaurants but began forgetting where she filed things in her computer.

"I really just kind of started struggling. Something wasn't right. I would have to bring my work home, spread it all over the floor, sort it and then try to get it done so that nobody at work would know I was having this difficulty," she said. Driving to familiar places, "I would think, 'I know where I am, but I don't know how to get out of here.'"

Two neurologists said it was just stress and anxiety, and one prescribed an antidepressant. A third finally diagnosed her with early-onset Alzheimer's disease four years ago. She was 56.

The new studies were on "subjective cognitive decline" — when people first notice they are having trouble, even if they test normal on mental ability tests:

— Richard Kryscio at the University of Kentucky led a study of 531 people, average age 73. Those who reported a change in memory or thinking abilities since their last doctor visit were nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with dementia or mild cognitive impairment about six to nine years later.

— Researchers from the French government's health agency and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston studied 3,861 nurses at least 70 years old who were asked about memory symptoms and periodically tested for them later. About 900 of them carried a gene that raises their risk for dementia. Among the gene carriers, worry about a single memory symptom predicted verbal memory decline on tests over the next six years. In the others without the gene, worry about three or more memory symptoms was linked to memory decline on tests.

— Rebecca Amariglio and other Harvard researchers found that complaints about memory decline matched how much sticky plaque researchers saw on brain scans of 189 people 65 and older. This confirms an earlier study of 131 people that tied memory complaints to these brain plaques, the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

— Reports of memory impairment were closely tied to a decline later in the ability to recall events in a study of 2,230 people, average age 80, by researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany.

— Petersen said that a study he and others soon will report shows that complaints about memory predicted who would later develop mild cognitive impairment — what used to be called "pre-Alzheimer's" — in a random sample of 1,500 people in the community near the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

"If you notice a change in your pattern of either yourself or a loved one, seek a health care professional's evaluation," said Heather Snyder, the Alzheimer's Association's director of medical and scientific operations. "It could be a lack of sleep or nutritional, but it may be something more than that."

But don't worry about small, common memory slips, said Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Alzheimer's center at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"Every time you forget someone's name, you don't need to go running to the doctor," she said.

The Alzheimer's Association lists 10 warning signs of the disease:

— Memory changes that disrupt daily life.

— Challenges in planning or solving problems.

— Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure.

— Confusion with time or place.

— Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships.

— New problems with words in speaking or writing.

— Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps.

— Decreased or poor judgment.

— Withdrawal from work or social activities.

— Changes in mood and personality.

source: philstar.com

Alzheimer's may be detectable earlier than thought - science‎

PARIS - Researchers said Tuesday they had seen the earliest-ever warning signs of Alzheimer's Disease -- among a high-risk group of 20-somethings -- in the ongoing quest for early detection and prevention.

A major problem in the search for a cure for this debilitating form of dementia is that symptoms appear years after irreversible brain decay has already set in.

For the study, a team of scientists from the United States and Colombia tested 18- to 26-year-old members of an extended Colombian family that share a common ancestor and a genetic predisposition to develop an inherited form of Alzheimer's.

One in three members of the clan carry a gene mutation that will lead to a rare form of the disease which hits people in their 40s, unlike the common variant which presents much later.

A brain scan comparison found that individuals who carry the errant gene have less grey matter in certain areas of the brain than those who don't, scientists wrote in The Lancet medical journal.

They also found that those with the mutation had higher levels in their cerebrospinal fluid of a protein called amyloid beta, implicated in the plaque build-ups found on the brains of Alzheimer's sufferers.

The findings "suggest that neurodegenerative changes occur more than 20 years before symptom onset and somewhat earlier than was suggested by findings from previous MRI studies," Nick Fox of the University College London's Dementia Research Centre said in a comment on the study.

Alzheimer's disease causes two-thirds of dementia cases -- attacking one in 200 people -- the rate is increasing as the world's population ages.

Trial participants, 20 with the fateful gene mutation and 24 without, were not told whether they had it or not. All had normal cognitive abilities at the time of the study.

"The findings... could ultimately lead to improved early detection and better clinical trials of preventative treatments," The Lancet said in a statement.

But the outcome also raises questions about scientists' understanding of how Alzheimer's progresses.

"These findings... raise new questions about the earliest brain changes involved in the predisposition to Alzheimer's and the extent to which they could be targeted by future prevention therapies," research leader Eric Reiman from the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Arizona said.

Scientists still do not know quite what to make of the plaques and tangles that German doctor Alois Alzheimer first spotted in the brain of a dementia patient who died in 1906.

They disagree on the respective roles of beta amyloid plaque build-ups and of a protein called tau which forms tangles inside the brain cells.

Most test therapies have targeted beta amyloids, but some now suggest it is actually tau killing the brain cells.

According to Fox, the new study questioned existing models of Alzheimer's Disease "on several fronts."

Among other things, "neurodegeneration would seem to be occurring in advance of evidence of plaque deposition," widely thought to cause the brain damage.

Fox said the results should be treated with caution as the trial sample was small and the outcome may not apply to the much more common sporadic, late-onset form of Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) projects the number of people with dementia will rise from 35.6 million in 2010 to 65.7 million by 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050.

source: interaksyon.com