Dementia cases to nearly triple by 2050 - report

PARIS, France - The number of people with dementia worldwide will nearly triple from 47 million today to 132 million in 2050, a report said Tuesday.

Dementia is an umbrella term for degenerative diseases of the brain characterised by a gradual decline in the ability to think and remember.

Accounting for well over half of cases, Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia.

As the world gets older, the number of people with dementia is set to increase exponentially, notes the World Alzheimer Report 2015, produced by Alzheimer's Disease International.

Today there are 900 million people 60 or older. Over the next 35 years, that age group will grow by 65 percent in rich countries, 185 percent in lower-middle income nations, and 239 percent in poor countries.

In 2015 alone, there will be about 10 million new cases, one every few seconds and nearly 30 percent more than in 2010.

The risk increases dramatically as we age.

Fewer than four out of every 1,000 people aged 60 to 64 are afflicted with some form of what used to be called senility. But from the age of 90, that ratio jumps to 105 for every 1,000 people, more than 10 percent.

The global cost burden of dementia is likewise increasing sharply, having risen by more than 35 percent over the last five years to $818 billion (709 billion euros) in 2015.

Sixty percent of the cost was for medical and institutional care.

"Population ageing alone drives the projected increases," said the report.

source: interaksyon.com

Donald Sterling diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, no-shows first day of trial on Clippers sale

LOS ANGELES – Donald Sterling, who was a no-show in court for the first day of his trial, has been suffering from Alzheimer’s for at least three years, a witness told a judge on Monday.

The proceedings are to determine if Sterling’s estranged wife Shelly has authority to sell the team, under pressure from the NBA, following racist remarks by Sterling that caused an uproar in America.

Neurologist Dr. Meril Platzer testified that she came to that conclusion after having the disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner undergo a battery of tests, including a CT (computerized tomography) scan and a PET (positron emission tomography) scan. She also said she went to his home to perform cognitive testing.

Asked how long Donald Sterling had been suffering from “dementia or Alzheimer’s”, disease Platzer said, “at least for three years, most likely for five years.”

Platzer told US judge Michael Levanas that following two hours of testing, she told Donald Sterling that he had Alzheimer’s and his reaction was, “I’m hungry. I want to eat.”

But Platzer said Donald Sterling’s wife, Shelly Sterling, was shocked by the news.

“She was taken aback, shocked. She felt bad for her husband,” said Platzer, who testified she is an expert in the field of neurology, having examined over 25,000 patients over the course of her career.

The probate court trial is to decide whether Shelly Sterling has legal authority under the family trust to sell the National Basketball Association team for a record $2 billion to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Donald Sterling is seeking to halt the sale being conducted by his estranged wife, arguing that his privacy rights were violated by the release of his medical records.

After several delays in the morning session, testimony in the non-jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court finally got under way. But before that could happen a US federal court judge had to deny Donald Sterling’s bid to move his legal fight with his wife over the sale of the Clippers to a federal court. The decision paved the way for the scheduled four-day trial to proceed.

US federal court judge George Wu denied the motion to move the case to federal court, saying that “to the extent that (Sterling’s) medical records are relevant to the probate hearings, the probate court is more than capable of evaluating them and rendering a decision.”

Donald Sterling called as witness

Pierce O’Donnell, lawyer for Shelly Sterling, then called Donald Sterling as the first witness. O’Donnell explained he had subpoenaed Sterling and when told he wouldn’t be available, O’Donnell suggested a bench warrant could be issued.

O’Donnell called his second witness, Platzer, one of two doctors hired by Shelly Sterling who examined Donald Sterling and found him to be mentally incapacitated.

Bobby Samini, the lawyer for Donald Sterling, said his client was not in the courtroom because they thought it would take more time to get a decision from the federal court. His legal team said Donald Sterling would be in court to testify on Tuesday.

Sterling’s other lawyer, Gary Ruttenberg, said that Shelly Sterling had duped his client and that the NBA is complicit in her actions.

“The NBA wants to get rid of my client,” Ruttenberg said. “They were colluding with Mrs. Sterling and her counsel to do this.”

Sterling’s lawyers did not cross-examine Platzer on Monday.

But O’Donnell said no fraud occurred and that Donald Sterling changed his mind after originally agreeing to the sale of the team.

“He will pull out all the stops to prevent the sale from going forward,” O’Donnell said.

Sterling was banned from the NBA for life earlier this year following the public release of recorded conversations between him and his girlfriend V. Stiviano. Sterling is heard on the tape making bigoted comments, criticizing Stiviano for having her picture taken with black people and telling her not to bring blacks to Clipper games.

The league announced plans to take action against Sterling to force him to sell the team. But Sterling has since filed a lawsuit against the NBA, alleging violations of his civil rights.

He has contended that he was recorded illegally while making emotional remarks during a disagreement with Stiviano.

source: interaksyon.com

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

Good night's sleep cleans out gunk in brain

LOS ANGELES — When we sleep, our brains get rid of gunk that builds up while we're awake, suggests a study that may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer's disease and other disorders.

This cleaning was detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists said there's reason to think it happens in people too.

If so, the finding may mean that for people with dementia and other mind disorders, "sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage," Dr. Clete Kushida, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said in an email.

Kushida did not participate in the study, which appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

People who don't get enough shut-eye have trouble learning and making decisions, and are slower to react. But despite decades of research, scientists can't agree on the basic purpose of sleep. Reasons range from processing memory, saving energy to regulating the body.

The latest work, led by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, adds fresh evidence to a long-standing view: When we close our eyes, our brains go on a cleaning spree.


The team previously found a plumbing network in mouse brains that flushes out cellular waste. For the new study, the scientists injected the brains of mice with beta-amyloid, a substance that builds up in Alzheimer's disease, and followed its movement. They determined that it was removed faster from the brains of sleeping mice than awake mice.

The team also noticed that brain cells tend to shrink during sleep, which widens the space between the cells. This allows waste to pass through that space more easily.

Though the work involved mouse brains, lead researcher Dr. Maiken Nedergaard said this plumbing system also exists in dogs and baboons, and it's logical to think that the human brain also clears away toxic substances. Nedergaard said the next step is to look for the process in human brains.

In an accompanying editorial, neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro said scientists have recently taken a heightened interest in the spaces between brain cells, where junk is flushed out.

It's becoming clearer that "sleep is likely to be a brain state in which several important housekeeping functions take place," she said in an email.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In a statement, program director Jim Koenig said the finding could lead to new approaches for treating a range of brain diseases.

source: philstar.com

Sleep helps brain stay fit by clearing waste

WASHINGTON - Like a janitor sweeping the halls after the lights go out, major changes occur in the brain during sleep to flush out waste and ward off disease, researchers said Thursday.

The research in the journal Science offers new answers to explain why people spend a third of their lives asleep and may help in treating dementia and other neurological disorders.

In lab experiments on mice, researchers observed how cellular waste was flushed out via the brain's blood vessels into the body's circulatory system and eventually the liver.


These waste products included amyloid beta, a protein that when accumulated is a driver of Alzheimer's disease.

In order to help remove the waste, cerebral spinal fluid is pumped through brain tissue.

The process is sped along during sleep because the brain's cells shrink by about 60 percent, allowing the fluid to move faster and more freely through the brain.

The whole operation takes place in what researchers call the glymphatic system, which appears to be nearly 10 times more active during sleep than while awake.

"The brain only has limited energy at its disposal," said lead author Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center.

"You can think of it like having a house party. You can either entertain the guests or clean up the house, but you can't really do both at the same time."

Co-authors of the study, which was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, came from Oregon Health and Science University and New York University.

source: interaksyon.com

Study ties higher blood sugar to dementia risk

Higher blood-sugar levels, even those well short of diabetes, seem to raise the risk of developing dementia, a major new study finds. Researchers say it suggests a novel way to try to prevent Alzheimer's disease — by keeping glucose at a healthy level.

Alzheimer's is by far the most common form of dementia and it's long been known that diabetes makes it more likely. The new study tracked blood sugar over time in all sorts of people — with and without diabetes — to see how it affects risk for the mind-robbing disease.

The results challenge current thinking by showing that it's not just the high glucose levels of diabetes that are a concern, said the study's leader, Dr. Paul Crane of the University of Washington in Seattle.

"It's a nice, clean pattern" — risk rises as blood sugar does, said Dallas Anderson, a scientist at the National Institute on Aging, the federal agency that paid for the study.

"This is part of a larger picture" and adds evidence that exercising and controlling blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol are a viable way to delay or prevent dementia, he said.

Because so many attempts to develop effective drugs have failed, "It looks like, at the moment, sort of our best bet," Anderson said. "We have to do something. If we just do nothing and wait around till there's some kind of cocktail of pills, we could be waiting a long time."




    About 35 million people worldwide have dementia; in the United States, about 5 million have Alzheimer's disease. What causes it isn't known. Current treatments just temporarily ease symptoms. People who have diabetes don't make enough insulin, or their bodies don't use insulin well, to turn food into energy. That causes sugar in the blood to rise, which can damage the kidneys and other organs — possibly the brain, researchers say.

The new study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, just tracked people and did not test whether lowering someone's blood sugar would help treat or prevent dementia. That would have to be tested in a new study, and people should not seek blood-sugar tests they wouldn't normally get otherwise, Crane said.

"We don't know from a study like this whether bringing down the glucose level will prevent or somehow modify dementia," but it's always a good idea to avoid developing diabetes, he said.

Eating well, exercising and controlling weight all help to keep blood sugar in line.

The study involved 2,067 people 65 and older in the Group Health Cooperative, a Seattle-area health care system. At the start, 232 participants had diabetes; the rest did not. They each had at least five blood-sugar tests within a few years of starting the study and more after it was underway. Researchers averaged these levels over time to even out spikes and dips from testing at various times of day or before or after a meal.

Participants were given standard tests for thinking skills every two years and asked about smoking, exercise and other things that affect dementia risk.

After nearly seven years of follow-up, 524, or one quarter of them, had developed dementia — mostly Alzheimer's disease. Among participants who started out without diabetes, those with higher glucose levels over the previous five years had an 18 percent greater risk of developing dementia than those with lower glucose levels.

Among participants with diabetes at the outset, those with higher blood sugar were 40 percent more likely to develop dementia than diabetics at the lower end of the glucose spectrum.

The effect of blood sugar on dementia risk was seen even when researchers took into account whether participants had the apoE4 gene, which raises the risk for Alzheimer's.

At least for diabetics, the results suggest that good blood-sugar control is important for cognition, Crane said.

For those without diabetes, "it may be that with the brain, every additional bit of blood sugar that you have is associated with higher risk," he said. "It changes how we think about thresholds, how we think about what is normal, what is abnormal."

source: philstar.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

Marion Cunningham, Author of Learning to Cook, Dies

Learning to Cook author Marion Cunningham, widely considered the mother of American cooking, died on Wednesday in Walnut Creek, Calif., after suffering a series of medical conditions, including Alzheimer's disease and respiratory problems, The New York Times reports. She was 90.

Among her many gifts to the family dining table was the simple philosophy that parents and children should share evening mealtimes together, so kids might learn table manners and how to engage in dinner conversation. She was also a champion of simple American fare – roast chicken, salad with iceberg lettuce and strawberry shortcake. (The Times shares her coffeecake recipe along with its obituary.)

"Marion was a traditionalist, but an enlightened traditionalist," Alice Waters, founder of the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, told the Los Angeles Times. "She could appreciate every conceivable food, the way she could connect with every conceivable person."

"Food is more than fodder," the former Marion Enwright, a Southern California native, wrote in the preface to The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, the standard kitchen text (since 1896) that she was hired to revise in the late 1970s. "It is an act of giving and receiving because the experience at table is a communal sharing."

A remarkable woman by all accounts, as a young housewife married to a lawyer Cunningham simply couldn't afford frozen convenience foods. As she told the Los Angeles Times in 1990, when the family lived in Laguna Beach, Calif., old friends from school started arriving in droves. To feed the throng, said Cunningham, "I made casseroles, stews, soups and big hearty salads with thick creamy dressings. All good to eat and cheap to make."

In her 30s she struggled with alcoholism and agoraphobia – but overcame them both, and in the early '70s she took a cooking class from celebrated chef James Beard. It was her first far-ranging trip, and a friendship was born. So was a career: Beard recommended Cunningham to publisher Alfred A. Knopf for the update of the Fannie Farmer book.

Her other books included The Breakfast Book, Cooking with Children and Lost Recipes, and she had her own Food Network show, Cunningham & Company.

Among her many honors were the Grand Dame award from Les Dames d'Escoffier in 1993, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the James Beard Foundation in 2003.

source: people.com