April 13, 2018

Today’s Top Alzheimer’s News

DISPARITIES SPOTLIGHT

An April 12, 2018 Gulf Times article reported that sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBT) in your 20’s may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or another dementia in your 50’s by 60 percent. Men with TBI histories had a higher rate of developing dementia than women (30 percent vs. 19 percent). The overall risk of dementia for those with a history of TBI is 24 percent higher than those without. According to Jesse Fann of the University of Washington School of Medicine, “What surprised us was that even a single mild TBI was associated with a significantly higher risk of dementia.” 


CAREGIVING CORNER

Vote for your favorite family caregiver for Caregiving.com’s “Annual Family Caregiver of the Year Award,” which honors people who care for a family member or friend. Voting ends at Midnight (EST) on April 15, 2018.


YOUTH FOCUS

An April 13, 2018 Concord Monitor opinion letter spotlighted students from the Concord High School C.A.S.T. (Concord Academic Student Theater) program, who earned first place at the New Hampshire Educational Guild’s state competition for their performance of the play, “Nora’s Lost,” about a woman with Alzheimer’s disease. “Here is just one example of learning that did not come from a book, but from the “heART.” ”


GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

An April 13, 2018 Health 24 article focused on the stigma of Alzheimer’s disease and mental illness in rural South Africa. According to the article, “There is lack of proper information about Alzheimer’s disease, a common belief that strange behaviour is an indication of witchcraft with families resorting to extreme and sometimes inhumane methods to control or subdue Alzheimer sufferers or keep them from roaming away.”


REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

An April 12, 2018 KUSI News “Good Morning San Diego” broadcast video interviewed Dr. James Brewer and a clinical trial volunteer about Alzheimer’s disease research in San Diego. Dr. Brewer spoke about the critical need for human subject for clinical trials. “This disease is uniquely human and there are factors that we’re not able to study in animals, for example. And we now have new techniques to look at the process of the disease in the brain in living humans and that helps us a ton to be able finally be able look in the human sample what’s going on.”


GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Register now for the “Evaluating Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria in Clinical Trials” day-long public meeting at the National Press Club in Washington. Monday, April 16, 2018. Convened by the FDA and Duke-Robert J. Margolis, MD, Center for Health Policy at Duke University. The meeting will discuss alternative clinical trial designs that may increase enrollment of more diverse patient populations, and opportunities to use data from expanded access trials. Register here.