September 02, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A September 2, 2015 Mayoclinic.org Alzheimer’s blog highlighted the launch of Dementia Friendly America and the support of partners likeUsAgainstAlzheimer’s. According to the post, “George Vradenburg, founder of USAgainstAlzheimer's, who worked to help launch the Dementia Friendly America effort, said, ‘This hometown Dementia Friendly America initiative sends a message to American families experiencing dementia: 'you are not alone, we are your neighbors, we care about you, and we want to help.’”


MUST READS

A September 1, 2015 Los Angeles Times opinion piece by Marcy Houle highlighted the lack of geriatricians and its impact on the quality of healthcare available to America’s aging population. According to Houle, “My parents' healthcare changed dramatically for the better once we found a geriatrician — a physician with years of additional training in the health of older people — who could fill the role of primary-care provider. But we were lucky. In 2014, there were fewer than 7,500 geriatricians in practice in the United States. In 2013, only 75 physicians nationwide entered a geriatric fellowship. The American Geriatrics Society projects that there will be only one geriatrician for every 4,000 seniors in the next 15 years.” Marcy Cottrell Houle is the author, most recently, of "The Gift of Caring: Saving Our Parents from the Perils of Modern Healthcare," with physician Elizabeth Eckstrom.

A September 1, 2015 Reuters article reported that “Novartis and Amgen are joining forces in the hunt for an Alzheimer's treatment, in the latest sign that drugmakers believe an effective therapy for the memory-robbing disease may be within reach.”


RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A September 2, 2015 News Medical article reported that “neuroscientists at UC Santa Barbara may have uncovered a mechanism by which onset [of Alzheimer’s] can be delayed by as much as 10 years.” According to the article, “That mechanism is a gene variant -- an allele -- found in a part of the genome that controls inflammation. The variant appears to prevent levels of the protein eotaxin from increasing with age, which it usually does hand in hand with inflammation. The findings appear in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.”

An August 28, 2015 South Florida Business Journal article reported that “Mount Sinai Medical Center and the University of Florida will partner to form the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center after winning a federal grant.”