Alzheimer's & Other Dementias

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Does mental stimulation help fight age-related cognitive decline?
  • A large study found that mentally stimulating activities in mid-life and later were linked to a lower risk or delay of MCI.
  • A very large study found that the more regularly older adults played puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku, the better they performed on tasks assessing attention, reasoning and memory.
  • A review of 32 studies has concluded that mind-body exercises such as tai chi do help improve cognition in older adults.

Can computer use, crafts and games slow or prevent age-related memory loss?
Education & IQ linked to later cognitive decline & dementia
  • A large, long-running study found those with a college education maintained good cognition substantially longer than those who didn't complete high school.
  • A very large online study found that higher levels of education were strong predictors of better cognitive performance across all ages (15-60 years), but this was more true for types of cognition such as reasoning and less true for processing speed.
  • A large study of older men found that their cognitive ability at age 20 was a stronger predictor of cognitive function later in life than other factors, such as higher education, occupational complexity or engaging in late-life intellectual activities.

Americans with a college education live longer without dementia and Alzheimer's
Low social engagement linked to cognitive decline & dementia risk
  • A very large, very long-running British study found that higher social contact at age 60 was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing dementia.
  • A 3-year study of older adults found that lower social engagement was only associated with greater cognitive decline in those with higher amyloid-beta levels.

Socially active 60-year-olds face lower dementia risk
More studies linking poor sleep to Alzheimer's risk
  • Adults whose sleep quality declined in their 40s and 50s had more amyloid-beta in their brains later in life, while those reporting poorer sleep in their 50s and 60s had more tau tangles.
  • Greater tau protein was associated with less synchronized brainwaves during sleep.
  • Both amyloid-beta and tau levels increase dramatically after a single night of sleep deprivation, suggesting good sleep helps remove these proteins.
  • A large study found that older adults who consistently slept more than nine hours every night had twice the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease within the next 10 years.
  • A large Japanese study found that those with sleep durations of less than 5 hours or more than 10 hours were more likely to develop dementia. However, those with short sleep could mitigate the effect with high physical activity.
  • A largish 12-year study found that poorer REM sleep was associated with an increased dementia risk.
  • Sleep apnea has been linked to higher levels of tau in the entorhinal cortex, poorer attention and memory, and slower processing speed.
  • Those with the APOE4 gene may be particularly vulnerable to the ill effects of sleep apnea.

Disrupted sleep in one's 50s, 60s raises Alzheimer's risk
Why gum disease increases dementia risk
  • A very large Korean study found older adults with chronic periodontitis had a 6% higher risk for dementia.
  • Two animal studies found that the bacteria involved in gum disease increases amyloid-beta, brain inflammation, and neuron death.

Periodontitis raises dementia risk
Alzheimer's produces early brain atrophy
  • A large study finds those who go on to develop Alzheimer's show atrophy of the hippocampus before age 40, and in the amygdala around age 40.

Brain scans from over 4,000 people, across the age range (9 months to 94 years) and including 1,385 Alzheimer's patients, has revealed an early divergence between those who go on to develop Alzheimer’s and those who age normally.
Neuron death a natural protective mechanism
  • Fruitflies genetically engineered to express amyloid-beta show that neuron loss is not always bad, but reflects the removal of defective neurons.

A fruitfly study suggests that losing neurons is not necessarily a bad thing.
Navigation difficulties early sign of Alzheimer's
  • A mobile phone game designed to test spatial navigation skills (Sea Hero Quest) has found that performance can distinguish APOE4 carriers from non-carriers.
  • Preliminary findings from a long-term study indicate that middle-aged adults with close relatives with Alzheimer's did worse on a test that measured their ability to visualise their position, and tended to have a smaller hippocampus.
  • A small study found that increasing difficulties with building cognitive maps of new surroundings was linked to Alzheimer's biomarkers. Difficulties in learning a new route appeared later, among those with early Alzheimer's.

Mobile game detects Alzheimer's risk
Cognitive tests for MCI & Alzheimer's
  • A study involving nearly 600 older adults found that using two different episodic memory tests markedly improved MCI diagnosis, compared with only using one.
  • A large study found that the clock drawing test was better than the MMSE in identifying cognitive impairment, and concludes it should be given to all patients with high blood pressure.
  • A largish study of middle-aged men confirmed that practice effects mask cognitive decline in those who have experience repeated testing.
  • A large study indicates that verb fluency is a better test than the more usual word fluency tests, and poorer verb fluency was linked to faster decline to MCI and progression from MCI to dementia.
  • A smallish study found that a brief, simple number naming test differentiates between cognitively healthy older adults and those with MCI or Alzheimer's 90% of the time.
  • A study involving 450 patients with memory problems found that those with anosognosia (unawareness of such problems) had higher rates of amyloid-beta clumps and were more likely to develop dementia in the next 2 years.
  • Another larger study found that those with anosognosia  had reduced glucose uptake in specific brain regions.
  • A new cognitive test that assesses relational memory has been found to be effective in distinguishing very early mild Alzheimer's from normal aging.

Memory tests predict brain atrophy and Alzheimer's disease
Anxiety linked to rising amyloid-beta levels
  • A study found an association in healthy older adults between higher amyloid beta levels and worsening anxiety.

Data from the Harvard Aging Brain Study found that higher amyloid beta levels were associated with increasing anxiety symptoms in cognitively normal older adults. The results suggest that worsening anxious-depressive symptoms may be an early predictor of elevated amyloid beta levels.

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