Myriad to End Development of Flurizan

clipped from www.thestreet.com Myriad Genetics MYGN said Monday that it will stop development of its experimental Alzheimer's disease drug Flurizan due to the failure of a pivotal phase III study. The Flurizan study, which enrolled patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's, did not achieve statistical significance on either of its two primary endpoints -- cognition or activities of daily living, the company said. While disappointing, the negative outcome from the Flurizan study was not unexpected, given the relatively poor results coming out of the drug's phase II study.

Are You Depressed? Take This Self-Test

Click the link in the snippet if you are interested in taking the test

clipped from health.usnews.com If you've been feeling out of sorts, you could have clinical depression that requires medical attention, or you could have a milder form of the blues that can be helped with seven instant mood boosters. Use this evaluation to help determine where your symptoms fall on the depression scale. You can print out the results and bring them to your doctor to discuss whether you might benefit from antidepressants or psychotherapy. Note: This test is not designed to make a diagnosis of depression, which should be performed by your doctor. If you score above 30 or answer anything other than "A" on question No. 15, you should see your doctor to discuss your symptoms and possible treatments. Any change of 5 or more points, from one test to the next, indicates that your moods have changed significantly.

Overuse Of Antipsychotics Among Nursing Home Residents With Dementia

This excellent article really got my blood flowing. It reminded me about a similar situation that occurred with my mother's personal physician. The doctor wanted to put my mother on an anti-depression drug. I was far enough in and had read enough information about dementia and Alzheimer's to understand this was a bad idea. At that point we did change physicians (three times in fact).

It turned out that my mother was likely suffering from Alzheimer's and she needed Aricept. It also turned out she was suffering from unrecognized hypothyroidism, although this diagnosis came later.

I learned two very important lessons. First, once dementia is diagnosed you need to find a personal physician that understands the disease and is well educated about the appropriate actions that need to be taken. Second, I learned that every person suffering from dementia should have their thyroid checked. After almost two years of never smiling and laughing, my mother began to smile and laugh after she received the proper medication for her thyroid.

My mother actually sang the other day for the first time in several years. I believe the introduction of the thyroid medication is partly responsible for this very positive change.

The clip below is a snippet of the article that appeared in the New York Times. Click the link in the clip to read the entire article. It is important. Please share this information with others.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Ramona Lamascola thought she was losing her 88-year-old mother to dementia. Instead, she was losing her to overmedication. Last fall her mother, Theresa Lamascola, of the Bronx, suffering from anxiety and confusion, was put on the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. When she had trouble walking, her daughter took her to another doctor — the younger Ms. Lamascola’s own physician — who found that she had unrecognized hypothyroidism, a disorder that can contribute to dementia. Theresa Lamascola was moved to a nursing home to get these problems under control. But things only got worse. “My mother was screaming and out of it, drooling on herself and twitching,” said Ms. Lamascola, a pediatric nurse. The psychiatrist in the nursing home stopped the Risperdal, which can cause twitching and vocal tics, and prescribed a sedative and two other antipsychotics. “I knew the drugs were doing this to her,” her daughter said. “I told him to stop the medications and stay away from Mom.”

Caregiver Handout

I found this very informative, uplifting and valuable handout for caregivers on the Indiana University Center for Aging Research website. The opening page is titled Alzheimer Disease Behavioral Symptoms Protocols. On the right hand side of the page you will see a link entitled Behavioral Intervention Protocols. This bulletin point presentation includes lots of tips on how to deal with communication, exercise, stress and a long array of issues faced by Alzheimer's Caregivers. Visit the website or if you prefer you can obtain the PDF by clicking on this link, Caregiver Handout.

Please pass this information and link on to others.

How to Make Your Workout Quick and Sweaty

Let me know the results if you try this workout routine.

clipped from health.usnews.com While researching a book on exercise and the brain, John Ratey learned that intense exercise releases a hormone that burns belly fat and adds muscle fibers. So the Harvard Medical School psychiatrist swapped out 40-minute jogging sessions on the treadmill for something less time consuming but more vigorous: Twice a week, he now jogs for a total of 20 minutes and includes five exhausting sprints of 20 to 30 seconds apiece. After a month, he was amazed at the results. "I didn't change my diet, and I spent less time on the treadmill," he says. "But all of a sudden, I was 10 pounds lighter." Many of the people I work with are time starved," says Todd Durkin, a trainer and conditioning coach in San Diego. "They don't have an hour a day to work out."

24 million Americans have diabetes

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com New government estimates show that nearly 24 million people in the United States have diabetes, an increase of more than 3 million in two years. This means that nearly 8 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes, mostly the type-2 diabetes linked with obesity, poor diet and a lack of exercise, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. The estimates, based on 2007 data, also show that 57 million people have pre-diabetes, a condition that puts people at increased risk for diabetes. And up to 25 percent of people with diabetes do not know they have it, the CDC said — down from 30 percent two years ago. It is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.

Pfizer and the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease

Pfizer Invites Public to View and Listen to Webcast of July 28 Pfizer Analyst and Investor Meeting at ICAD

clipped from www.pfizer.com NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pfizer Inc invites investors, media, and the general public to view and listen to a webcast of a presentation by Pfizer’s neuroscience leadership team at an analyst and investor meeting on Monday, July 28, at 6:00 p.m. Central Daylight Saving Time, in connection with the annual meeting of the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD). To view and listen to the webcast, visit our web site homepage at www.pfizer.com and click on the “Pfizer Analyst and Investor Meeting at ICAD” link in the Investor Presentations tab. Information on accessing and pre-registering for the webcast will be available at www.pfizer.com beginning today. Visitors will be able to view and listen to an archived copy of the webcast at www.pfizer.com.

50 Communication Tips and Techniques for Caregivers

You just can't get enough tips on communication. The RNCentral website put together 50 tips with links to more and more information. When you have the time its worth a visit.

Follow the link in the clip and get this useful information.

clipped from www.rncentral.com Whether you're a professional nurse or just taking care of a loved one, you're bound to run into communication challenges as a caregiver. Some of the issues caregivers deal with include talking to care providers, managing memory loss, and avoiding power struggles. It's not an easy job, but armed with these tips, you can make things just a little bit easier.

The Doctor Will See You on the Webcam Now

Depending on cost this might work very well for people without health insurance. Many illnesses require a simple prescription for an antibiotic.

Many people I know can't get into a doctor on the first day when they start feeling ill. As a result, the lack of immediate treatment and a prescription drug causes the illness to linger and lengthens the recovery time.

This is an interesting counterpoint to retail clinics and behind the counter generic antibiotics.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com To the Health Blog, American Well sounds like a company that’s selling doctor visits via webcam. But Roy Schoenberg, the CEO, tells us we don’t get it. “The fact that you can engage in a Web video chat with a provider is a nice exercise, but it’s not the fundamental offering of the system,” is how he put it in a recent conversation. The company’s business model is to partner with insurers, who agree to reimburse in-network doctors for patient e-visits. Docs who choose to work with American Well can sign on whenever they want and see patients who are looking for an online visit. Today, the company announced its first big customer: HMSA, Hawaii’s Blue Cross Blue Shield provider, which has just under a million members and is the state’s biggest insurer. The visits are reimbursed through relatively new standardized billing codes that allow docs to get paid for electronic visits. The insurer pays the doc, and American Well takes a cut. The company also charges an up-front licensing fee.

GRAPE SEED EXTRACT MAY REDUCE COGNITIVE DECLINE ASSOCIATED WITH ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

This inforamtion about grape seed extract and MegaNatural-AZ. is new to me and I thought I would pass it along.

Since I am genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's via birth I am always searching for information and alternatives that might be beneficial in the long run.

clipped from www.sfn.org A compound found in grape seed extract reduces plaque formation and resulting cognitive impairment in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease, new research shows. The study appears in the June 18 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers tested a grape seed polyphenolic extract product sold as MegaNatural-AZ, made by Polyphenolics, which in part supported the study. Polyphenolic compounds are antioxidants naturally found in wine, tea, chocolate, and some fruits and vegetables. To determine whether the extract could mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers used mice genetically modified to develop a condition similar to Alzheimer’s disease. They exposed pre-symptomatic “Alzheimer’s mice” to the extract or placebo daily for five months. The daily dose of the polyphenolic extract was equivalent to the average amount of polyphenolics consumed by a person on a daily basis.

Fish Oil Pinch Spurs Search for Alternative Omega-3s

I guess we can expect prices for Omega-3 to start rising fast soon. My mother and I take three capsules each every day so cost could become an issue at some point.

As for genetically modified Omega-3, I guess we will make the decision when the new products become available.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com The global commodities boom extends even to the ocean depths: The price of crude fish oil has nearly tripled in the past five years. This matters to you, Health Blog reader, because fish oil is a primary source of omega-3 fatty acids, the nutritional supplements that may reduce the risk of heart disease and a host of other ailments. The price has been rising as Baby Boomers (and others) have been swallowing ever more fish oil. Global fisheries, alas, are already under pressure and can’t keep up with the habit. Responding to this growing imbalance, some big corporate players are using biotech gene-splicing techniques to create land-based supplies of omega-3s, Dow Jones Newswires reports. DuPont hopes to use genetically modified yeast to crank out omega-3s. Monsanto is trying soy beans. And Dow AgroSciences and Martek Biosciences are splicing algae genes into canola seeds. The products could come to market within the next few years.

A Doctor’s Lessons From a Dying Patient

Sometimes patients know they’re about to die. Doctors, accustomed to saving lives rather than passively awaiting death, don’t always handle those situations all that well.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com “Even though death is an inevitable part of the human condition, it’s not something that most doctors, including me, ever get too comfortable with,” family doc Ben Brewer writes this week in his WSJ column. “We get used to pushing it off until another day.” Brewer writes, the final few days of a patients life can be illuminating for doctors who make the time. He describes the last days of a 95-year-old patient who came down with pneumonia. The patient took to telling stories of his youth. He described visiting Germany with his family as a young man, during the 1930s. At one point, as he was walking down a deserted street, he encountered a soldier who stopped, raised his hand and said, “Heil Hitler.” My patient, who wasn’t Jewish but wasn’t saying “Heil Hitler” to anybody, affected a broad smile, and replied, “Good morning,” as pleasantly as he could. He kept walking without looking back and wondered if he would still have his head as he passed by. He survived unharmed.

Ben Bernanke: ‘Disturbing Gap’ in American Health Care

clipped from blogs.wsj.com The question for economists isn’t whether the country is spending too much on health care, Ben Bernanke said today. “Rather, the question, whatever we spend, is whether we are getting our money’s worth.” While Bernanke said there’s much to praise about American health care, he also said we could get more for our money. “The evidence … suggests that the cost of health care in the United States is greater than necessary to allow us to achieve the levels of health and longevity we now enjoy,” he said. “Although some patients do not receive the care they need, others receive more (and more expensive) care than necessary.” He was speaking at a Senate committee hearing on health reform; the text of his speech is online here.

Ginkgo biloba does not help people with dementia, study finds

clipped from www.alzheimers.org.uk Ginkgo biloba has no benefit for people with dementia, according to new Alzheimer's Society research. One of the longest and most rigorous studies yet on Ginkgo biloba found it does not slow progression of dementia and does not significantly effect cognitive function or quality of life. The study was the first to test the effects of Gingko biloba on people with dementia in a community setting in the UK and showed no significant benefit over a  six month period. 176 people with mild-moderate dementia took part in the placebo-controlled trial. Ahead of print publication, the study is now available for 'early viewing' on the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry online.

Alzheimer's Reading Room: I broke down on live TV over my dad's Alzheimer's

The article on the following page is important and uplifting. I remember during those first few months of caring for my mother how sad and frustrated I was feeling. Then, I met a young couple in the gym that had gone through the entire experience from beginning to end with their mother who suffered and died from Alzheimer's disease.

I remember as I related my own experience to them how they shook their heads up and down indicating they knew exactly what I was experiencing. They recounted their similar experiences and always with a smile on their face. I remember feeling immediately "I was not alone". The feelings of frustration, fear and sadness dissipated and I now find myself thinking, "I can do it".

'Alzheimer's is such a cruel disease because that vibrant person is taken away from you. They are still there in body but it's like the shell. The person you remember has gone.'

I broke down on live TV over my dad's Alzheimer's.

Driving across Dartmoor with her parents one sunny afternoon in 1995, Ruth Langsford's father Dennis observed a beautiful barn conversion and said he had admired it earlier in the day.

When Ruth irritably pointed out that she had taken a different road on the outward journey, he insisted she was wrong. 'He got quite cross and we had a discussion that almost turned into a row, while Mum kept quiet in the back of the car. He was adamant that he was right,' Ruth recalls.



'Then we saw a man leaning over a five-bar gate and Dad said, "I remember that man. He waved at us." At that moment I thought, oh my God, he's gone mad. What's the matter with him?

'When I got home I even got a map out to show him the way we had gone. But he still wouldn't have it. That evening I said to my Mum I thought something wasn't right.'

While the incident may have been minor, it disturbed Ruth, a presenter on ITV1's This Morning and long-term partner of Eamonn Holmes of Sky Breakfast News. She believes now it was the first real indicator that her father was in the early stages of Alzheimer's.

The condition, thought to affect half the 700,000 dementia patients in the UK, begins with short-term memory loss, clumsiness and problems with communication, and gradually robs sufferers of their faculties, leaving them unable to remember close family or perform even the simplest tasks unaided.

Today, Dennis, 81, is in the advanced stages of the illness, and is in full-time residential care in Cornwall.

And as she speaks about her father's illness, Ruth, 48, known for her warmth and humour on the This Morning sofa - regularly co-hosting the Friday edition with Phillip Schofield - often loses her composure.

'I think he still knows my Mum - his eyes always light up when she walks in the room, but sometimes I'm not sure if he knows me anymore,' says Ruth, her eyes filling with tears.

'It is very hard. I adore my Dad. The only way I can describe it is that you are grieving for a loved one while they are still alive. It is the saddest kind of bereavement.'

She adds: 'He was the most clever, funny, vibrant man. He played rugby, scrambled motorbikes and flew gliders. He was handsome, the best storyteller ever and the life and soul of the party.

'He was a fantastic father and, in my opinion, a New Man ahead of his time. He taught my sister Julia and me to fish and sail. We had such good times and love him to bits.

'Alzheimer's is such a cruel disease because that vibrant person is taken away from you. They are still there in body but it's like the shell. The person you remember has gone.'

Her mother Joan admitted that the incident in the car was not the first worrying episode.

When his camera had gone missing, it turned out he had left it in the garden shed. Slippers turned up in the fridge.

She had voiced her concerns to her GP, tentatively suggesting Alzheimer's, only to be told that it was probably forgetfulness and old age.

Despite the alarm bells, Ruth reveals it took several years for her family to get the truth that he was suffering from dementia, and by the time he was formally diagnosed 11 years ago, the disease of the brain was so advanced that doctors could do little to halt its progression with drugs.

'My father was a former Army man - meticulous and tidy,' says Ruth.

'I knew it wasn't right. When I was a child, if I borrowed the Sellotape, it had to go back in the drawer in exactly the right place.'

Her father's vagueness was also a tricky subject to broach as he was 'a fiercely proud, independent man who disliked any fuss'.

In the military for 30 years, rising through the ranks to warrant officer, Dennis moved his family to various Army bases abroad.

Ruth was born in Singapore and her sister Julia, now 50, and a landscape gardener, was born in Germany. Her parents have been married 54 years.

'They met at a dance when Mum was in the Wrens. My dad was a young soldier and she was a gorgeous redhead.

'Apparently, when he saw her on the other side of the room he said to one of his friends, "I'm going to marry that girl."' After he left the Army in 1972 the couple moved to Cornwall where Dennis was born. They set up home in the village of Millbrook on the beautiful Rame Peninsula, where he worked in the education department for Devon County Council.

'I don't think he was ever as happy as he was in the Army. He eventually retired when he was 65. That's another thing that is so sad. My parents had so many plans for their retirement. Dad had lots of hobbies and interests - he loved photography, pottery and music.'

Until this point, Dennis had been fit and healthy. He had a small heart attack in 1996 but had recovered after a pace-maker was fitted.

As his Alzheimer's progressed, Joan's fears intensified.

'Often Mum would discuss the latest bizarre thing he'd done, but because we weren't living with it, we'd say, "I'm sure it's nothing." It was only when I spent time with him that I saw what she meant.'

The turning point was in 1997 when the couple visited London and Ruth took them to Wimbledon Village for afternoon tea. Once again, Dennis swore blind he had been to the café recently.

'But he was clearly talking about when we were children. I felt sick inside. And for the first time I didn't argue with him. Mum and I just said: "Really?" I knew something was seriously wrong.'

When she returned home, Joan, 77, went to the GP alone at Ruth's insistence. The doctor suggested a Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), a series of simple questions to test mental ability relating to dementia.

The test - carried out at home by an old-age psychiatrist - confirmed the family's fears, but they agreed not to tell him.

'I still question whether that was the right thing to do, but every family has to deal with it their own way,' Ruth says. 'But Dad did get to the stage where he was aware things weren't quite right.'

Some days, Ruth feels angry that the disease has robbed her five-year-old son, Jack, of a loving grandfather. 'I take Jack to the park and see grandparents playing with their grandchildren - it breaks my heart.'

Eamonn, 48, whom she has been with for 12 years, has been a great support. She says: 'He loves my Dad. The two of them would always tease me. Eamonn's a great family man. He lost his own father when he was only in his 60s and was devastated.

'I wish we had been given more information. He's never been put on medication and there are drugs available that can slow Alzheimer's progress. Now I wonder why we didn't ask, but it's too late.'

Despite the diagnosis, the implications of day-to-day caring for a sufferer didn't sink in. Ruth regularly visited Cornwall from her home in Surrey, but realises her mum protected her from her physical struggle.

Dennis would often close all the curtains in the middle of the day, or Joan would wake to find him fully dressed at four in the morning.

'In a way it's like being a new mother with a baby,' says Ruth.

'Fortunately, he's never been physically aggressive, as some dementia sufferers can be. But he was verbally aggressive a few times and that really upset her. Much as he was quite fiery, he was never cruel before.

'Suddenly he would say quite nasty things to her that really upset her. But that wasn't Dad. He adored Mum.'

A health worker visited Joan regularly, and in recent years Dennis was in a respite home for a week at a time to give her a break.

The final straw was when Ruth bumped into a friend of her mother. 'She said innocently, "We've been worried about your Mum, she looks so tired."

'I felt like the worst daughter in the world. She was trying to protect us and be strong for the man she loved and adored.

'My sister and I are really close but we felt guilty that we didn't have the full picture. We discovered Dad had fallen over a few times. We were worried about her getting ill.'

Eighteen months ago Dennis moved full-time into a local care home, where he seems content, and Joan visits regularly.

'I was distraught but we had to admit defeat. It's hardest for my mum. For her life partner, her lover and friend to be getting to the stage now where he doesn't recognise us, is just devastating,' says Ruth.

Ruth had never spoken publicly about her father's illness until last year, during a studio discussion on This Morning, when she broke down on air talking to a caller about Alzheimer's.

'Thankfully, I was co-presenting with Eamonn.

He squeezed my back to comfort me and he made a joke to break the ice.'

Ruth was deluged by emails and letters from viewers with similar stories. The Alzheimer's Society approached her initially to offer support, then to ask her to be an ambassador for the charity.

'Now we think the disease started five years before we were told Dad had Alzheimer's. Early diagnosis is key - for treatment and to prepare you and your family emotionally.'

By 2025 there will be one million dementia sufferers in the UK according to last year's Dementia UK report prepared by the LSE and King's College, London.

One in three people over 65 will die with dementia, yet up to two thirds will never receive a formal diagnosis. Early diagnosis is crucial, but those with dementia and their families often say that finding out about the problem was the start of getting back in control.

'I do feel guilty that I didn't pursue a diagnosis earlier on,' says Ruth. 'The truth is that I didn't want him to be ill. The thought of it frightened me and I was running away from it. I didn't want my dad to get old and doddery.

'I miss talking to him, I miss going to him for advice. I miss Christmas shopping together and going to the pub together or sneaking off down the garden for a crafty fag. He was my mate as well as my dad.'

Ruth is keen to promote a new Alzheimer's Society initiative, Worried About Your Memory? (WAYM?), encouraging individuals and families to seek help when they notice those vital early signs of forgetfulness.

'GPs are busy and if episodes are sporadic, then it's understandable not to take it too seriously,' says Ruth.

'We all forget things but if you are genuinely worried about your memory, don't think, "It's just me being dotty". Go and see your doctor.'

This weekend, Ruth, who will be appearing on This Morning from July 21 until the end of August, will have made the 500-mile round trip with her sister Julia to Cornwall to visit Dennis on Father's Day, with a kiss, a card and his favourite Mars bars and Maltesers.

'He seems in a good place. My theory is that he is back in the Army, which he loved.

'He says the same thing over and over again: "They're a lovely bunch of lads in here." And that is all he says. Over and over again. He's as happy as Larry.'

• For information on the Worried About Your Memory? campaign, visit www.alzheimers.org.uk or call the Alzheimer's Society Dementia Helpline, 0845 300 0336.


10 things to know about Alzheimer's

• German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer identified the first case in 1906. It was officially recognised by the medical profession in 1910.

• Alzheimer's is the most frequent type of dementia in the elderly, affecting almost half the 700,000 patients with dementia in the UK.

• About two per cent of those aged 65 show signs of the disease. Every five years after the age of 65, the probability of developing the disease doubles. Some ten per cent of Alzheimer's cases are inherited.

• It is diagnosed by using brain scans, patient history and observing behaviour.

• A shrinking vocabulary, problems talking and short-term memory loss are normally the first signs. Difficulty writing and dressing are also common.

• In the late stages, language is lost and patients cannot perform even simple tasks. Finally deterioration of muscle leads to sufferers becoming bedridden.

• Average life expectancy is about seven years after diagnosis, and less than seven per cent of patients live more than 14 years.

• There is no cure, but a type of drug called cholinesterase inhibitors can slow down progression in those with moderate Alzheimer's.

• Anti-depressants are prescribed to help treat the depression that can be associated with the disease.

• Sufferers have included US President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and writer Iris Murdoch.

The Alzheimer's Action Plan: The Experts' Guide to the Best Diagnosis and Treatment for Memory Problems

Alzheimer's disease supersedes diabetes as sixth-leading cause of death in the United States

clipped from www.actionalz.org Alzheimer's disease is now the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics. The CDC estimates that 72,914 Americans died of Alzheimer's disease in 2006. With an unprecedented historic population shift of 78 million aging baby boomers in the country and this disease poised to strike 10 million boomers - it is clear this escalating epidemic must be addressed now. "The CDC's announcement that Alzheimer's disease jumped from the seventh to the sixth-leading cause of death should serve as a wake-up call to the nation," said William Thies, Ph.D., vice president of Medical and Scientific Relations at the Alzheimer's Association. "The fact that there are no effective treatments for Alzheimer's has allowed the disease to pass diabetes. It is vitally important that we increase Alzheimer's research funding to slow or stop the progression of this devastating disease."

Alzheimer's Society Comment On A News Strategy For Carers That Plans To Double The Amount Of Respite Care For Carers In England

clipped from www.medicalnewstoday.com The carers strategy is a good start in tackling the large set of problems faced by carers. Greater investment in respite is very good news. It could give thousands of carers the invaluable opportunity to recharge their batteries and access crucial support. However, it's important that this new money is used for short breaks and not only given to people when they reach crisis point. It's also not just about putting someone in a care home for a week, we need to get creative and provide support that fits people's individual needs. Alzheimer's Society The Alzheimer's Society provides a national help line on 0845 3000 336 and website http://www.alzheimers.org.uk. Please include this information in any publication that uses these comments.

Promising drug fights Alzheimer's in three ways

One GSM drug now being tested in people with Alzheimer's is Myriad Genetics's Flurizan, also called tarenflurbil.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com A type of drug that may offer promise in treating Alzheimer's disease works in three ways to fight the formation of "plaques" in the brain that are a hallmark of the ailment, scientists said on Wednesday. The researchers looked at a kind of drug called a gamma-secretase modulator, or GSM, now being tested to see if it slows Alzheimer's disease progression. Results from a Flurizan study involving 1,600 people with Alzheimer's are expected this summer, Golde said.

Bright lights slow dementia patients’ decline

My mother often tries to sit in a dark room. I find that sunlight from windows and brighter lamps at night brighten her miood.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Brightening the lights for elderly people with dementia, in combination with a daily dose of the sleep hormone melatonin, improved their mood, sleep, and overall well-being, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday. "The strong point of our findings was that effects were so prominent over a wide range of measurements of different aspects of functioning, suggesting a very strong improvement of the quality of life," said Eus van Someren of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, in Amsterdam.

Gene variation linked to earlier onset of Alzheimer's symptoms

clipped from mednews.wustl.edu Investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a genetic variation associated with an earlier age of onset in Alzheimer's disease. Unlike genetic mutations previously linked to rare, inherited forms of early-onset Alzheimer's disease — which can strike people as young as their 30s or 40s — these variants influence an earlier presentation of symptoms in people affected by the more common, late-onset form of the disease. "We focused on this gene for two reasons: First, it codes for the tau protein that we find in neurofibrillary tangles, and secondly, some studies in the scientific literature show an association between the gene and Alzheimer's disease, while others do not," says principal investigator Alison M. Goate

Quick Quiz helps Doctors distinguish Dementia from forgetfullness

clipped from medschool.wustl.edu A 3-minute quiz that asks patients about recent changes in memory is helping physicians differentiate signs of mild dementia from plain forgetfulness, a new study shows. The quiz was developed by neurologist James Galvin. More  >

A Safety and Efficacy Study of Oral Dimebon in Patients With Mild-To-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease (CONNECTION)

Follow the link to Clinical Trials.gov for additional information and available locations.

clipped from clinicaltrials.gov Medivation Condition Alzheimer's Disease Phase III This study is a randomized, placebo-controlled 6-month study designed as an adequate and well-controlled trial to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of Dimebon in the treatment of patients with mild-to-moderate AD. Dimebon is an investigational drug for Alzheimer's disease. The target of Dimebon's mechanism of action are the mitochondria (a cell's primary source of energy).The Connection Study is the second of two pivotal studies evaluating the effect of Dimebon. It is a 6-month study enrolling 525 patients in the United States, Europe, and South America. All patients completing the 6-month study will be eligible to receive Dimebon in an open-label extension trial. The patient population will be carefully selected to ensure inclusion of patients with AD, rather than other types of dementia. Mild-to-moderate disease will be defined by the screening MMSE.

Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and Sun Health Research Institute Enrolling Patients in Alzheimer's Study

If you or a loved are taking Aricept you should find this announce of interest.

Follow the link to Banner Health for additional information.

clipped from www.bannerhealth.com Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and Sun Health Research Institute today announced that they are actively enrolling patients in a new study of the investigational drug Dimebon™ for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.  The study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of Dimebon in patients with Alzheimer’s disease taken in combination with Aricept® (donepezil HCI tablets), an FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatment.  Results from a one-year study of Dimebon in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease – showing statistically significant improvements in memory, thinking, function and behavior – were highlighted at the recent 2008 Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium (AAC) Annual Conference, a community service event.  Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and Sun Health Research Institute are both members of the Consortium.