August 21, 2019

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

MUST READS

An August 20, 2019 Digital Trends article highlighted the success of the Sea Hero Quest video game, which has been gathering data since 2016 on around four million players to understand and diagnose dementia. The developers are creating a VR version with added options. According to Max Scott-Slade of Gliitchers (one of the developers), “You can take all of the people of the same age and gender, and then see how the person you’re looking at is performing. That’s a really important element of titrating the data, because age has a really big impact, and for this ability that’s damaged in Alzheimer’s, so does gender.”

RESEARCH AND SCIENCE

An August 20, 2019 Newsweek article focused on a new study out of the U.K. looking at the link between an individual with high blood pressure in their mid-30s, and developing dementia later in life. The study found that ages 36 to 52 are the most critical in determining future brain health.“Having higher, and rising, blood pressure influenced the amount of cerebrovascular disease (blood vessel damage in the brain) and brain shrinkage, both indicators of poorer brain health. High blood pressure wasn't linked to the build-up of the core Alzheimer protein, amyloid, or changes in memory and thinking—but we need to study this further over longer periods,” said study lead Professor Jonathan Schott of UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Also covered by Medical News Today.

According to an August 20, 2019 Medical Xpress article, a new study from Duke Health examined the effects of drinking alcohol during adolescence on cognitive health later in life. Intermittent adolescent binge drinking changes the hippocampus (critical for learning and memory) by inhibiting the birth of new neurons, and causes brain inflammation. Donepezil, which is used to slow cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer's disease, appears to reverse brain inflammation and neuron damage.

PATIENT AND CAREGIVER VOICES

In the first of a two-part series, an August 18, 2019 Daily Herald articlespoke with Kristy Russell, an Alzheimer’s Resource Specialist at the Utah Department of Health. Russell's own grandmother had dementia, and she gives hard-won advice for fellow caretakers to loved ones with dementia. She urges them to join the reality of the person with dementia, and to offer music therapy and other fun activities.

DEMENTIA AND THE ARTS

(ICYMI) An August 2, 2019 CBS 42 Birmingham broadcast segmentspotlighted 15 year-old Bay Matthews, who plays music for people with dementia at Founders Place, a ministry program held in a local church. “It’s said that we cannot cure dementia, but we can cure loneliness. And that’s really what this program is doing,” said Susanna Whitsett of Founders Place. Find information on Founders Place here.