March 19, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A March 19, 2015 CEO Initiative (CEOi) on Alzheimer’s Disease statement announced that “the Global Alzheimer’s Platform (GAP) and the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) announced today that they will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to accelerate Alzheimer’s drug development by building a global, standing, trial-ready platform for Alzheimer’s drug development.” According to George Vradenburg, convener of the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease and co-founder of USAgainstAlzheimer’s, “This agreement represents an important commitment from major initiatives in Europe and the United States to expand and improve our capacity to conduct trials in Alzheimer’s in order to bring innovative medicines to patients faster.”


MUST READS

A March 18, 2015 Time article reported that researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic have developed a simple three part test for Alzheimer’s disease. According to the article, “Petersen and his team wanted to develop a test that any physician can administer to patients, without the need for any new technology or expensive equipment…In the first phase of the test, his researchers simply collected information from 1,500 patients’ medical charts—their age, family history of Alzheimer’s, factors such as diabetes or smoking that have been linked to Alzheimer’s, and whether the patient had ever reported problems with memory. In the next phase they studied the results of the patient’s basic mental exam as well as of a psychiatric evaluation, because depression and anxiety have been connected to Alzheimer’s. And another factor that emerged as important in developing the disease—how quickly the participant could walk a short distance. “We were a little surprised,” says Petersen. “But what’s nice about it is that it’s a nice non-cognitive, motor factor so it’s looking at another aspect of brain function.”” Also reported on by The Los Angeles Times

A March 18, 2015 Forbes Q&A with author Joseph Coleman highlighted his new book Unfinished Work: The Struggle to Build an Aging American Workforce. According to Coleman, “There was recently a study of HR managers of American companies’ preparedness for the aging of the population and it found that only one-third of companies have come up with a plan to deal with their aging workforce. The others are still not waking up to this demographic.There’s a great storehouse of value in our older citizens, but society and companies haven’t figured out how to tap into that. This is like an earthquake in slow motion, stretched out over decades.”


RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A March 19, 2015 Fusion article reported on the potential impact of Apple’s new medical research platform. According to the article, “Apple’s hope is that ResearchKit will make it easier for scientists to build apps that collect health data for research from volunteers by leveraging the iPhone’s sensors, as well as the many personal trackers that can be connected to it. At the same time, people will get feedback in real-time from the apps about their symptoms, which they can use to manage their conditions. It’s a new way to run clinical trials and develop tailored therapies—and a much-needed middle ground between the old-school medical establishment and the new-school DIY crowd…Imagine, Friend says, if we had the equivalent of a biological battery meter, a tool that could process thousands of distinct micro-events and tell us when we were about to dip below a certain threshold of health. With the right information, we might be able to fend off diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, a heart attack or the flu before they get severe.”

A March 18, 2015 CBS News article reported on progress with the Alzheimer’s drug T-817MA designed to protect nerve cells in the brain. According to the article, “"We are absolutely hoping it can prevent cognitive decline, it will prevent the disease from progressing and prevent the clinical changes that happen," said Dr. Amy Aloysi, a specialist in geriatric psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, one of the hospitals taking part in the trial. The study plans to enroll 450 people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease at about 50 hospitals across the country.”

A March 18, 2015 Yahoo! Health article highlighted the MIND diet and a study that suggests it “could slash Alzheimer’s risk by 35 percent, even if a person only moderately adheres to the eating plan.” According to the article, “To study its effects, the scientists took data on the food intake of 923 Chicago-dwellers between ages 58 and 98 over the course of a decade. They used questionnaires to determine just how closely participants’ eating habits mimicked one of three diet plans: the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet, or the MIND diet. The researchers also measured the incidence of Alzheimer’s over a 4.5-year follow-up period, as part of an ongoing research project at Rush to examine facets of cognitive health. All of the diets seemed to be effective in reducing Alzheimer’s risk. Those who followed DASH saw a 39 percent drop in risk, those who followed the Mediterranean diet saw a 54 percent drop, and those who adhered to the MIND plan saw a 53 percent decrease in cognitive decline.”


CARE

A March 18, 2015 The Washington Post letter-to-the-editor by Anne Bloom, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2013, called for better end-of-life care options for individuals with Alzheimer’s. According to Bloom, “I was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in December 2013. I have recently begun to deal with issues I need to address in anticipation of my disease progression. I have been investigating nursing homes. I have also investigated prepaying for my funeral…Those of us with Alzheimer’s deserve some consideration in the Death With Dignity discussion. And this option should be legal in Virginia, if not throughout the nation. The time has come to help people with Alzheimer’s however we can.”

A March 17, 2015 blog post by Patti Davis, President Ronald Reagan’s daughter, highlighted Alzheimer’s devastating impact on families. According to Davis, “Alzheimer’s, more than any other disease, seems to illuminate every part of a family’s dynamic — all the tangles and weaves, all the broken places, as well as the strengths that might otherwise go unnoticed. What I realized in my own situation was that the rearrangement took place within myself. There would be no outward healing or reconciling — that was obvious. But I found in myself a deeper level of understanding. Maureen was the daughter from my father’s first marriage, the marriage we weren’t supposed to talk about. We were not a blended family by any means. And now she was losing our father to the piracy of Alzheimer’s without ever having inhabited his life as much as she longed to. When I wept for my own loss, I also wept for hers, which was a new frontier for me.”