USA2 SPOTLIGHT

An October 12, 2018 WBUR commentary by Josh Eibelman spotlighted the issue of language barriers disqualifying people from participating in Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials, even though volunteers are desperately needed. Eibelman’s grandmother, who has AD, cannot participate because she does not speak English. This is particularly problematic for Spanish speakers. LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s Lead Jason Resendez weighs in, “We know Latinos will make up a bigger and bigger share of the community living with Alzheimer’s in the future. And we know that we don’t have the workforce pipeline in place to accurately diagnose and enroll these folks into cutting edge research.”

MUST READS

An October 12, 2018 Forbes article looked at impediments to bringing novel Alzheimer’s disease therapies to market. According to the article, “A major failure within the community of Alzheimer’s researchers is the apparent rejection of any idea that Alzheimer’s disease is not caused by the build-up of Beta-amyloid plaque or Tau protein... The tools exist to go back to the basics and see if the pathogen hypothesis stands.”

RESEARCH AND SCIENCE

An October 12, 2018 EurekAlert! release reported that new evidence shows that the earliest stages of the brain degeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease are linked to neuropsychiatric symptoms including anxiety, depression, loss of appetite and sleep disturbances. According to the article, “A "Holy Grail" of Alzheimer's research is to develop treatments that could be given in the disease's earliest stages to protect brain tissue from further loss and to slow or prevent the eventual development of dementia.”

According to an October 12, 2018 Science daily release, the anti-oxidant, glutathione (GSH), which protects the brain from stress, is significantly depleted in Alzheimer's patients compared to normal subjects. "If routine non-invasive tests for lower levels of GSH in the hippocampus regions are performed, we might be able to mitigate the advancement of Alzheimer's disease by providing GSH supplements,” said study lead Dr. Mandal.

MUST LISTEN

Listen to Being Patient’s “Caregiver Health Grief, Stress And How To Cope” podcast on Soundcloud. Lori Nisson from the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute talks about how to protect mental health while caregiving, and deal with the grief of losing the person you love while they’re still with you.

CAREGIVING CORNER

Register for CareGiving.com’s 2018 National Caregiving Conference in Chicago in November. Attend in person or virtually. The conference theme is “Our Best Selves,” encouraging caregivers to “pause to find our best during a time that feels like the worst.”