risk factors

Debunking the “chemical imbalance” theory yet not throwing out the antidepressant baby with the bathwater

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A recent study found incon­sis­tent evi­dence link­ing the neu­ro­trans­mit­ter sero­tonin to depres­sion. In an arti­cle for The Con­ver­sa­tion, the authors of the study con­clud­ed that it is impos­si­ble to say that tak­ing SSRI anti­de­pres­sants is worth­while. But is it safe to con­clude that sero­tonin is not involved in depres­sion or that mod­ern anti­de­pres­sants aren’t help­ful in treat­ing the con­di­tion? [Read more…] about Debunk­ing the “chem­i­cal imbal­ance” the­o­ry yet not throw­ing out the anti­de­pres­sant baby with the bathwater

10-year study finds that the higher the blood sugar level, the faster the cognitive decline over time — regardless of diabetic status

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The Star­tling Link Between Sug­ar and Alzheimer’s (The Atlantic):

“A lon­gi­tu­di­nal study, pub­lished Thurs­day in the jour­nal Dia­betolo­gia, fol­lowed 5,189 peo­ple over 10 years and found that peo­ple with high blood sug­ar had a faster rate of cog­ni­tive decline than those with nor­mal blood sugar—whether or not their blood-sug­ar lev­el tech­ni­cal­ly made them dia­bet­ic. In oth­er words, the high­er the blood sug­ar, the faster the cog­ni­tive decline. [Read more…] about 10-year study finds that the high­er the blood sug­ar lev­el, the faster the cog­ni­tive decline over time — regard­less of dia­bet­ic status

Beware alarmist medical advertising about Alzheimer’s disease: The story of one “Brain Health Quiz”

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© 2012 Alexan­dra C. R.

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Is a Dubi­ous ‘Brain Health Quiz’ Stok­ing Alzheimer’s Anx­i­ety to Lure Patients? (Undark):

“…Alarmist med­ical adver­tis­ing is pret­ty fun­ny on tele­vi­sion, but it can be far more trou­bling in real life. Although I’ve nev­er been alert­ed to impend­ing death, I recent­ly received an adver­tise­ment from my own trust­ed health care provider warn­ing that I may have Alzheimer’s dis­ease, although I have no known symp­toms and no com­plaints. [Read more…] about Beware alarmist med­ical adver­tis­ing about Alzheimer’s dis­ease: The sto­ry of one “Brain Health Quiz”

Study: Enhancing brain functioning, and preventing cognitive decline, via diet, exercise and cognitive training

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brain life

 

Healthy eat­ing, exer­cise, and brain-train­ing pro­gram results in slow­er men­tal decline for old­er peo­ple (Sci­ence Daily):

“A com­pre­hen­sive pro­gram pro­vid­ing old­er peo­ple at risk of demen­tia with healthy eat­ing guid­ance, exer­cise, brain train­ing, and man­age­ment of meta­bol­ic and vas­cu­lar risk fac­tors appears to slow down cog­ni­tive decline, accord­ing to the first ever ran­domised con­trolled tri­al of its kind, pub­lished in The Lancet.

After two years, [Read more…] about Study: Enhanc­ing brain func­tion­ing, and pre­vent­ing cog­ni­tive decline, via diet, exer­cise and cog­ni­tive training

Alzheimer’s disease can be delayed through lifestyle: New, large study joins growing chorus

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Amyloid_brain–

Hard Evi­dence We Can Slow Alzheimer’s By Exer­cis­ing The Body And The Mind (Forbes):

“Alzheimer’s dis­ease is one of the most feared diag­noses among patients…once the dis­ease has been diag­nosed, there is noth­ing mod­ern med­i­cine can do to stop it.

But it can be slowed, and a new study pre­sent­ed [Read more…] about Alzheimer’s dis­ease can be delayed through lifestyle: New, large study joins grow­ing chorus

Alzheimer’s Disease: New Survey and Research Study on Awareness, Testing and Prevention

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Very inter­est­ing new data rein­forc­ing two main themes we have been ana­lyz­ing for a while:
1) We bet­ter start pay­ing seri­ous atten­tion (and R&D dol­lars) to lifestyle-based and non-inva­sive cog­ni­tive and emo­tion­al health inter­ven­tions, which are most­ly ignored in favor of inva­sive, drug-based options
2) Inter­ven­tions will need to be per­son­al­ized. The study below ana­lyzes data at the coun­try lev­el, but the same log­ic applies to the indi­vid­ual level

Many fear Alzheimer’s, want to be test­ed: sur­vey (Reuters):

- “The tele­phone sur­vey of 2,678 adults aged 18 and old­er in the Unit­ed States, France, Ger­many, Spain and Poland was con­duct­ed by researchers at the Har­vard School of Pub­lic Health and [Read more…] about Alzheimer’s Dis­ease: New Sur­vey and Research Study on Aware­ness, Test­ing and Prevention