Time for a universal “exercise prescription” for kids and adults to boost cognition and mental health?

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of brain research find­ings, tools and con­tro­ver­sies plus some brain teasers to chal­lenge your (and our) work­ing mem­o­ry. #1. Major evi­dence review sup­ports an “exer­cise pre­scrip­tion” for most adults to boost men­tal health “High­er inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was asso­ci­at­ed with greater improvements”…

Read More

Price tag for a questionable Alzheimer’s treatment: $109,000 per patient, per year. Unclear yet: For how many years?

The real costs of the new Alzheimer’s drug, Leqem­bi — and why tax­pay­ers will foot much of the bill (CBS News): The first drug pur­port­ing to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s dis­ease is like­ly to cost the U.S. health care sys­tem bil­lions annu­al­ly even as it remains out of reach for many of the low­er-income seniors…

Read More

Just-published Apple patent signals aim to measure brain activity using AirPods sensor system

Apple Invents a next-gen­er­a­­tion Air­Pods Sen­sor Sys­tem that could mea­sure Biosig­nals and Elec­tri­cal Activ­i­ty of a User’s brain (Patent­ly Apple): Today the US Patent & Trade­mark Office pub­lished a patent appli­ca­tion from Apple that relates to a next-gen­er­a­­tion of Air­Pods Sen­sor Sys­tem where­in the hous­ing and tips of Air­Pods could include a num­ber of active and…

Read More

Virtual cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) accounts for over 30% of NHS mental health treatments — up from 10% in 2017

Con­cern as a third of NHS men­tal health treat­ments shift online (The Guardian): An Observ­er analy­sis of data from pri­vate providers, cross-checked against NHS fig­ures, reveals around one in three men­tal health treat­ments in Eng­land are deliv­ered online, up from one in five in 2019, and one in 10 in 2017. Patients with mild to…

Read More

Should doctors prescribe Leqembi (lecanemab) to women with early Alzheimer’s Disease? The evidence-based answer is probably No

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of inter­ven­tions for brain/ cognitive/ men­tal health plus a few brain teasers to test our per­cep­tion and cog­ni­tive skills. #1. Should doc­tors pre­scribe lecanemab (Leqem­bi) to women? The answer, giv­en avail­able evi­dence, is prob­a­bly No Huge (and most­ly over­looked) red flag regard­ing newly…

Read More

Growing controversy over role of FDA and Medicare in promoting anti-amyloid drugs given limited benefit, high cost, severe side-effects

The War Over Whether Medicare Should Pay For The New Anti-Alzheimer’s Drugs (Forbes): The pow­er­ful Alzheimer’s Dis­ease lob­by is fight­ing a mul­ti-bil­lion-dol­lar bat­tle on two fronts. It is qui­et­ly try­ing to lim­it restric­tions the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion puts on the use of new drugs aimed at slow­ing the pro­gres­sion of the brain dis­ease. And…

Read More