October 10, 2013

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

Possible breakthrough in Alzheimer's research, changes to improve long-term care services on the horizon, the impact of sequestration on Alzheimer's research, and new research uses peanut butter to test for early-stage Alzheimer's (read more). 
 
 

Must reads

  • An October 10, 2013 The News Tribune opinion piece by USA2 co-founder George Vradenburg highlighted the negative impact of Alzheimer's on our "global economic health." According to Vradenburg, "Already, the annual global cost of Alzheimer’s and dementia is a staggering $604 billion — a figure greater than the GDP of all but 20 nations and representing 1 percent of total global economic output. What’s worse, by mid-century, the cases of Alzheimer’s are projected to triple, causing costs to skyrocket and shake the financial stability of entire nations, including the United States…Government, for example, must fund basic research, foster an innovation-friendly environment and transform health care systems built for acute care into more integrated health and social support systems to support chronic care needs."
  • An October 9, 2013 BBC News article reported that researchers at the University of Leicester discovered that all brain cell death from prion disease in mice can be prevented. According to the article, "Commenting on the research Prof Roger Morris, from King's College London, said: "This finding, I suspect, will be judged by history as a turning point in the search for medicines to control and prevent Alzheimer's Disease."He told the BBC a cure for Alzheimer's was not imminent but: "I'm very excited, it's the first proof in any living animal that you can delay neurodegeneration." Also covered by The Guardian
  • An October 9, 2013 Senior Housing News article reported that major "changes to help improve long-term services and supports for seniors and people living with disabilities could arrive within the next year." According to long-term care commissioner and USA2 co-founder George Vradenburg, "There’s a good prospect that those recommendations that could be implemented without significant budget impacts could be implemented within the next year or so."
Sequestration 
  • An October 9, 2013 The Daily Princetonian article reported that the $100 million BRAIN initiative housed under the Princeton Neuroscience Institute has been shutdown due to sequestration. According to the article, "Funding on the initiative was slated to begin with the fiscal year 2014, and the final report would have been submitted by the advisory committee in summer 2014, Tank said. But the shutdown has forced most of the employees working on the project on furlough. The delay could have larger implications on funding allocations past the coming year, jeopardizing the projected 2014 launch." 
Research and science 
  • An October 9, 2013 Voice of America article reported that researchers at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste have developed a smell test for early stage Alzheimer's. According to the article, "The scientists found that patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease had a dramatic difference in detecting odor between the left and right nostril — the left nostril was impaired and did not detect the smell until it was an average of 10 centimeters closer to the nose than the right nostril had made the detection in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This was not the case in patients with other kinds of dementia; instead, these patients had either no differences in odor detection between nostrils or the right nostril was worse at detecting odor than the left one."