dementia tagged posts

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found a link between rapid drops in blood pressure, known as orthostatic hypotension, and an increased risk of dementia. Photo by ronstik/Shutterstock

Middle-aged people who experience temporary blood pressure drops that often cause dizziness upon standing up may be at an increased risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia 20 years later, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests. The findings suggest that these temporary episodes – orthostatic hypotension – may cause lasting damage, possibly because they reduce needed blood flow to the brain...

Dr. Andy Shih is Assistant Professor of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and senior author on an article published online on Jan. 16, 2017 by the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. The article provides preclinical evidence that ministrokes can have a lasting effect on brain function that could contribute to dementia. Credit: Medical University of South Carolina

Evidence overwhelmingly supports a link between cognitive decline and cerebrovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy...

Georgios Tsiminis in his photonics laboratory. Credit: University of Adelaide

A 1st step towards a low-cost, portable, broadscale vitamin B12 deficiency test has been developed. Vitamin B12 deficiency is associated with an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Such a device would enable the tracking of vitamin B12 levels in high-risk patients and early intervention – to top up vitamin B12 levels when low – and help overcome the limitations of current testing methods which are time-consuming and costly.

“Vitamin B12 deficiency has been shown to be a potential modifiable risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and is associated with cognitive decline,” says Dr Georgios Tsiminis, Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide...

Researchers have devised several lipid-based diets aimed at slowing down progression and relieving symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: Janickova et al, Bentham Science Publishers

Numerous epidemiological studies have revealed profitable effects of dietary intake of especially fish oil on cognitive decline during aging and dementia. One of the invariable pathologies in AD is degeneration of cholinergic synapses in brain cortex and hippocampus. Current pharmacological interventions are limited to a few drugs that alleviate symptoms but do not slow down the underlying disease processes eg inhibitors of cholinesterases, enzymes that degrade the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, or memantine, a modulator of glutamate neurotransmission.

Within the EU-funded project LipiDiDiet (FP7-211696, the...