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New Research Helps Unlock How to Keep Your Brain and Body Healthy

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In this installment of medical research news, I’ve included some tidbits that will give you a few things to think about—and one to sleep on.

An Ounce of Detection

Digilab, Inc. a company that specializes in finding peptide biomarkers, reported on their recently new technology that finds Alzheimer’s biomarkers. In the study, 312 cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected; the three groups included people with Alzheimer’s, people with other forms of dementia and people who had no signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia. The technicians were able to differentiate which samples came from each of the three groups by looking at a series of peptides. This ability to differentiate means that earlier marking of Alzheimer’s disease, excluding the possibility of another form of dementia, is possible. The repercussions of such information are not as clear. Does this mean insurance companies could get their hands on this information and exclude people from plans before they show signs of the disease? Or could it mean earlier detection will lead to staving off the disease course with preventative tactics?

Cancer Gets Taken Down a Notch

With findings just in from 2004, The American Cancer Society has reported that the number of cancer deaths in the US has fallen nominally since the year previous. As the annual death toll hovered at 500,000, the difference of 3,000 fewer deaths makes a mark in the everyday lives of those dealing with cancer. Most researchers point to smoking cessation as the largest contributor. The findings showed that rates of lung cancer, especially among men, have declined. Enhanced treatment and early detection are also seen as reasons for the positive change. For graphs of specific cancers and their changing rates check out the American Cancer Society’s Statistics for 2007.

Have You Had Your Folic Acid Today?

Jane Durga from the Wageningen University in The Netherlands led a study of 818 adults over the age of 50 where she found a link between folic acid intake and improved cognitive function in areas such as memory, information processing and verbal fluency. Those who displayed higher cognitive functioning in the study took 800 micrograms of the protein, whereas the rest were given a placebo.

Older adults should be aware that all vitamin intake should be discussed with their primary physician first. This is especially important with folic acid, which can interact negatively with Vitamin B12, especially in seniors. Folic acid is found naturally in many green leafy vegetables, beets, asparagus and whole wheat breads. Many cereals are fortified with folic acid.

Herpes and Alzheimer’s

A team of researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center links what many have suspected were bedfellows: Alzheimer’s and herpes. The gene ApoE-4, the leading known risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s, is linked to herpes simplex 1, the virus that causes cold sores. This form of the gene creates a hospitable environment for the herpes virus in the brain—more so than other variants of the ApoE gene allow. People carrying this gene are more likely (if they have the herpes virus) to have frequent flare-ups with a short latency period between them. (Those with ApoE-2 have the smallest risk of developing Alzheimer’s and longer sustained latency periods between outbreaks.)

Check Your Uric Acid Levels

A recent article in Neuropsychology described how uric acid levels and cognitive function seem to be interrelated. John Hopkins and Yale University medical school researchers tested the uric acid levels for 96 community-dwelling adults, age 60–92. What they found was that those at the high-end of “normal” had the lowest scores on cognitive tests of mental processing speed and verbal and working memory. (Researchers controlled for age, education, gender, race, weight—along with health issues such as alcohol abuse, diabetes, hypertension and smoking.) The leading author of the study, Dr. Schretlen, pointed out that higher levels of uric acid are linked with known risk factors for dementia, including atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and abdominal obesity coupled with insulin resistance. The working hypothesis is that high uric acid levels may be an early warning sign of cognitive decline.

Who Needs Sleep? Seniors Do

Researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University found that primary care physicians of patients over 60 seldom asked them about sleep disturbances such as insomnia. Social workers interviewed a group of patients directly after their visits and found even though nothing had been noted in their charts, nearly 70% had at least one sleep complaint—and 45% reported some difficulty sleeping. Another study followed 1,503 patients (ages 62–100) from nearly a dozen primary care sites. The team reviewed medical charts and found 68.9% of patients reported at least one sleep complaint and 40% had two or more. A note in the chart occurred only 19.2% of the time in instances when all five sleep-related issues on the survey were marked for a patient. The team postulates that many doctors feel sleep issues are just the result of aging—and that patients feel that a “good night’s rest” is something that naturally dissipates with age. The truth is that most sleep issues can be helped regardless of a person’s age. Issues like insomnia are not even determined by age. Whether lackluster sleep or ill health is the cause or the effect is still unknown. What we do know is that treating the sleep disorder oftentimes improves cognitive function.

And now it’s time to put this post to bed,

Lara Belonogoff

Posted in: Cancer Studies, General News, Tips for Healthy Living

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