May 27, 2016

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

MUST READS

A May 27, 2016 Post-Bulletin article reported that “Mayo Clinic in Rochester was chosen as the location for the centralized national Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program biobank, and it will be awarded $142 million in funding over five years.” 

A May 26, 2016 People.com article reported that Paula Abdul’s father is living with Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “Returning as a judge on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, Abdul, 53, spoke to PEOPLE about One Last Thing and admitted she's grateful to be able to spend time with her father, Harry, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.”

A May 26, 2016 Medscape article reported that “Scientists have developed a new evidence-based scale that rates animal- and plant-based foods that improve depressive symptoms.” According to the article, “Research on this scale and on foods that help nourish the brain was presented here at a standing-room-only session during the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2016 Annual Meeting. There is increasing evidence regarding the crucial role that diet plays in brain health, particularly in the areas of depression and dementia, said Drew Ramsey, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, Columbia University, New York City, who was one of the session speakers.”

A May 26, 2016 STAT News article explored the growing shift from computer science to biotechnology focused innovation using the Science Talent Search competition as an example. According to the article, “Yet, today, there’s a telling mismatch between the sponsors of these competitions and the recent prize-winning projects. You don’t see a lot prizes for computer programming or microprocessor design. What you do see is a noticeable number of biomedical projects, from a respiratory monitor to a method to diagnose Alzheimer’s to the identification of new cancer drug targets. Those projects reflect the ascendance of biotechnology and other medical fields as the next great American hope. Thanks to dramatic technological advances, from gene sequencing to gene editing, we’re gripped by an optimism that major new treatments are on their way for a range of diseases. And for the children of the Cold War, who are now growing increasingly old and infirm, such cures can’t come too soon.”

A May 16, 2016 3000 Miles in Mini article offered a glimpse into what it’s like to have a loved one with Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “It started with the small things; I can remember her booking theatre tickets at the local box office and not remembering the phone number of the house she’d lived in since 1965.  She started to be unsure of the way to places that she regularly went to  and became totally unable to give people directions.   But Mum always had days like this, she could be known to sometimes be ‘away with the fairies’…It was my older sister who pointed out to me that Alzheimer’s had already taken our maternal grandmother, who we never knew. In those days in rural Suffolk, I am told she was just known as a batty old woman, but I think it’s safe to assume it was Alzheimer’s.  Also her daughter,  our Aunty, Mums sister had it. I can remember a lady who used to sleep a lot, and who I never had a long conversation with. Her demise, I realised had been shielded from the 14 year old me.  I had no idea what we were about to experience, and that was when denial kicked in.”