May 19, 2016

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

MUST READS

A May 18, 2016 The Washington Post article reported that “In the battle against Alzheimer’s Disease, inflammation may be an ally, not a foe, a new study has found.” According to the article, “Immune cells in the brain previously blamed for Alzheimer’s actually protect against the disease by corralling the damage-causing amyloid plaques, according to the Yale University study, published Wednesday in the journal Neuron.”

A May 18, 2016 Huffington Post opinion piece by Ken Dychtwald, PhD, called on the presidential candidates to address “five essential transpartisan issues…if our newfound longevity is to be a triumph rather than a tragedy.” According to Dychtwald, “An “age wave” is coming that could either make or break America. Are we prepared? No. Just as society’s institutions were grossly unprepared for the baby boom, we have done far too little to prepare for the coming “age wave.” Do we as a nation have the guts and wisdom to ask - and answer — these questions? I believe we do. Time and time again Americans have proved that we are a creative, industrious nation with tremendous capacity for improvement and transformation. The next eight years will be the turning point. I surely hope that our next president is prepared to address these critical issues and boldly make the course-corrections necessary to usher in a healthy and purposeful future of aging.”

A May 18, 2016 Boston Globe article reported that “AbbVie Inc. will direct an effort to cure Alzheimer’s disease from its new research facility in Cambridge.” According to the article, “AbbVie vice president Eric Karran, a biopharma veteran hired from the United Kingdom to lead the new center, said its mission is ambitious: to take on Alzheimer’s, the neurodegenerative disease estimated to affect more than 40 million people worldwide.”

A May 19, 2016 The Guardian article highlighted a game called Sea Hero Quest that uses gaming to help researchers understand dementia. According to the article, “By understanding how healthy people steer around their environment, scientists hopes to pin down how spatial navigation goes wrong in Alzheimer’s disease.”