May 24, 2017

Today’s Top Alzheimer’s News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A May 23, 2017 UsAgainstAlzheimer’s post urges Congress to continue aggressively championing progress in Alzheimer’s disease research. “The President’s budget request doesn’t reflect recent bipartisan agreement that funding NIH will take us further down the path to an Alzheimer’s cure,” said George Vradenburg, UsA2’s Co-Founder and Chairman. “To defeat Alzheimer’s, I urge Congress, in the strongest of terms, to stand firm against these proposed cuts and continue to act on behalf of the millions of Americans, and their caregivers, who are stricken with this incurable disease.”

Sign up to join our next Alzheimer's Talks tomorrow, Thursday, May 25, from 2-3pm (EST) with Dr. Howard Fillit and George Vradenburg. Our network of researchers just released an analysis encouraging the FDA to clarify and modernize its approach for approving new treatments for Alzheimer's disease. Fillit and Vradenburg, two authors of this analysis, help us understand the proposed changes to the current regulatory framework that could increase investments in Alzheimer's research.

MUST READS

A May 24, 2017 The New York Times article highlighted a study which looked at the effects of exercise on vascular cognitive impairment, the second most frequent form of dementia worldwide (after Alzheimer’s). Exercise, namely walking a few times per week, may bolster brain function and thinking skills of people with the disease, in addition to improving blood pressure and cardiovascular health. Some research suggests that frequent, brisk walks may improve memory and physical abilities for people in the early stages of AD. 

A May 23, 2017 Medical News Today video and article spotlighted a new study by researchers at Iowa State University, showing that a family history of Alzheimer's disease may be the link between developing AD and TOMM40, a metabolic gene which affects the function of mitochondria, the components inside cells that provide them with energy. Such studies are helping to make sense of what happens to thinking and memory when there is not enough energy for brain cells to perform properly. 

A May 23, 2017 UPI article reported on a study by Loyola University in Chicago which found that Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other neurodegenerative disorders all have abnormal proteins with the same ability to cause vesicle damage in brain cells. Each neurodegenerative disease involves different proteins being affected, such as tau in Alzheimer's. An effective treatment for one disease might work for the others. "A possible therapy would involve boosting a brain cell's ability to degrade a clump of proteins and damaged vesicles. If we could do this in one disease, it's a good bet the therapy would be effective in the other two diseases,” said Dr. Edward Campbell, Loyola University researcher.

According to a May 23, 2017 Bleacher Report article, Guy Morriss, a former NFL player and head coach at Baylor and Kentucky, has Alzheimer's disease. According to Morriss, “At first I couldn't write my name. I could not write my name. I didn't know my ABCs. I couldn't do that little rhyme… You wake up one day... everything connects. Next time, you get out of bed... It's just a day at a time."

MUST LISTEN

Journalist Greg O’Brien has been battling Alzheimer’s since 2009. Greg bravely told his story in his award-winning book, “On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s.” To chronicle his ongoing journey with Alzheimer’s, Greg has started the “On Pluto Podcast.”

POLITICAL INSIGHTS

A May 23, 2017 Vox article focused on Oklahoma’s Rep. Tom Cole, who is the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies, which controls the NIH budget. He is leading the charge for Congress to approve more money for the NIH. According to Cole, whose father died from Alzheimer’s disease, “I was a big believer in the merits of health research, partly because it’s simply the right thing to do: We all know people — their families go through cancer or Alzheimer’s.”