MUST READS

An August 7, 2017 AlzForum article focused on the conversation around creating the first primary prevention trial for Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Researchers discussed a study at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London last month. The study will enroll amyloid-negative carriers and non-carriers as young as age 18, test BACE inhibitors and utilize PET scans. 

According to an August 7, 2017 Reuters article, people with high fluctuations in blood pressure are more likely to develop dementia than those with steady blood pressure. Hypertension is a known risk factor for dementia. Research shows that those with the fluctuations are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s, and three times more likely to develop vascular dementia. According to Dr. Costantino Iadecola of Weill Cornell Medicine, “The key question to be answered is whether interventions to control blood pressure variation, once available, would reduce dementia risk.” 

An August 7, 2017 The Source article focused on the potential of legalizing physician assisted death in the United States, especially in light of the rise of Alzheimer’s and dementia cases. According to Rebecca Dresser, author of a piece published in the Hastings Center Report, “They contend that respect for individual autonomy and self-determination requires authorities to give people the freedom to choose an earlier death over the suffering and indignities of life with dementia. For them, the loss of intellectual abilities as well as the loss of valued relationships and activities that accompanies dementia can be a fate worse than death.”

REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES

An August 7, 2017 SC Now Morning News article spotlighted South Carolina as a dementia neurology “desert,” an area with the lowest projected ratio of adult neurologists per 10,000 dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. Such states need additional resources, training and education for primary care physicians. “It’s going to require a team effort. If nothing changes, it’s going to be a stress and drain on society. Not only is it a health care problem but a social problem as well for the state,” said Dr. Victor Hirth of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.