Caring For Our Brains

As the average life span becomes longer, dementia becomes more common. Swedish scientist Laura Fratiglioni has shown that everyone can minimize his or her risk of being affected. Factors from blood pressure and weight to the degree of physical and mental activity can influence cognitive functioning as one gets older.

The lengthening of the average life span in the population has caused an increase in the prevalence of aging related disorders, one of which is cognitive impairment and dementia. An expert panel estimates that worldwide more than 24 million people are affected by dementia, most suffering from Alzheimer's disease. In the more developed countries, 70 percent of the persons with dementia are 75 years or older. Age is the greatest risk factor for developing dementia. But there is growing evidence that the strong association with increasing age can be, at least partially, explained by a life course cumulative exposure to different risk factors.

Laura Fratiglioni's research group at Karolinska Institutet is a leader in identifying the risk factors that lie behind developing dementia and using this knowledge to develop possible preventative strategies. The group's research has shown that the risk is partly determined by an individual genetic susceptibility, and that active involvement in mental, physical and social activities can delay the onset of dementia by preserving cognitive functions. Further education early in life has a protective effect, and the group's research has shown that it is never too late to get started.

"The brain, just as other parts of the body, requires stimulation and exercise in order to continue to function. Elderly people with an active life - mentally, physically and socially - run a lower risk of developing dementia, and it doesn't matter what the particular activities are", says Professor Laura Fratiglioni.

Laura Fratiglioni's research has shown that physical factors are also significant. Not only high and low blood pressure, but also diabetes and obesity when middle-aged increase the risk of developing dementia after the age of 70. "What is good for the heart is good for the brain", she says.

Knowledge about risk factors and how to protect the brain from dementia is based on observational studies in which scientists have discovered statistical correlations in the population. Scientists in other current studies that are carried out in Europe are investigating what happens when a large number of study participants are given special help to better control vascular risk factors and to stimulate social, physical and mental activities. which should, at least, lead to a delay of dementia onset.

"You could say that we are progressing from observation to experiment. This means that in a few years we will know more about which strategies are most effective in preventing neurodegenerative disorders", says Laura Fratiglioni.

Source:
Sabina Bossi
Karolinska Institutet

Car Emissions Cloud the Mind

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeBy Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Pollution from traffic was associated with worse cognitive function in a cohort of older men, researchers found.

A doubling of exposure to black carbon -- a marker for traffic pollution -- was associated with a 30% greater chance of having a low score on a screening test for dementia (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.6), according to Melinda Power, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues.

A composite score of six other cognitive function tests was also lower among men with greater exposure to black carbon, the researchers reported online in Environmental Health Perspectives.

"This is the first study to find an association between traffic-related air pollution and cognition in older men, and only the second to consider the relationship in older adults," they wrote.
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Age-Related Memory Deficits Reduced By Compound In Celery, Peppers

A diet rich in the plant compound luteolin reduces age-related inflammation in the brain and related memory deficits by directly inhibiting the release of inflammatory molecules in the brain, researchers report.

Luteolin (LOOT-ee-oh-lin) is found in many plants, including carrots, peppers, celery, olive oil, peppermint, rosemary and chamomile.

The new study, which examined the effects of dietary luteolin in a mouse model of aging, appears in the Journal of Nutrition.

The researchers focused on microglial cells, specialized immune cells that reside in the brain and spinal cord. Infections stimulate microglia to produce signaling molecules, called cytokines, which spur a cascade of chemical changes in the brain. Some of these signaling molecules, the inflammatory cytokines, induce "sickness behavior": the sleepiness, loss of appetite, memory deficits and depressive behaviors that often accompany illness.

Inflammation in the brain also appears to be a key contributor to age-related memory problems, said University of Illinois animal sciences professor Rodney Johnson, who led the new study. Johnson directs the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Illinois.

"We found previously that during normal aging, microglial cells become dysregulated and begin producing excessive levels of inflammatory cytokines," he said.

"We think this contributes to cognitive aging and is a predisposing factor for the development of neurodegenerative diseases."

Johnson has spent nearly a decade studying the anti-inflammatory properties of nutrients and various bioactive plant compounds, including luteolin. Previous studies - by Johnson's lab and others - have shown that luteolin has anti-inflammatory effects in the body. This is the first study to suggest, however, that luteolin improves cognitive health by acting directly on the microglial cells to reduce their production of inflammatory cytokines in the brain.

The researchers showed that microglial cells that were exposed to a bacterial toxin produced inflammatory cytokines that could kill neurons. When the microglia were exposed to luteolin before they encountered the toxin, however, the neurons lived.

The National Institutes of Health provided funding to support this research.

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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News Analysis - In Push to Detect Early Alzheimer’s Markers, Hopes for Prevention - NYTimes.com

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by Gina Kolata

Will Alzheimer’s disease, a terrible degenerative brain disease with no treatments and no clear guidelines for diagnosis before its end stages, become like heart disease? That might mean early markers of risk, analogous to high cholesterol levels, that predict who is likely to get it. And it might mean drugs that actually prevent it.

That is the hope behind new diagnostic guidelines being proposed by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association.

In July, when the groups first announced their proposed guidelines, they were met with some skepticism and anger. Why suggest ways of diagnosing the disease before a person even has symptoms? Why tell people they are doomed?

And are those early diagnosis guidelines just a sop to pharmaceutical companies so they can start marketing expensive, and perhaps not very effective, new drugs?

So the Alzheimer’s Association, with participation from the National Institute on Aging, held a conference call on Wednesday to clarify their position.
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Brain Function Differs With Weight, Body Shape from MedPage Today

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
Body mass index and the distribution of fat were both associated with cognitive function in a large study of postmenopausal women, researchers said.
In women with a low waist-to-hip ratio -- denoting a "pear-shaped" body -- increasing BMI correlated significantly with poorer cognitive performance, according to Diana R. Kerwin, MD, of Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues.
Meanwhile, the "apple shape" with fat concentrated at the waist made higher BMI predictive of relatively better cognition, the researchers found.
The mechanism is unclear, Kerwin and colleagues said in their report online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,but the association suggests the relationship between body fat and brain function is more complicated than earlier studies had suggested.
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Vitamin D Deficiency May Be Linked to Cognitive Decline

By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today

Low levels of vitamin D appear to be associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline among older people, according to researchers.

In an observational study conducted among more than 800 Italians ages 65 and older, severe vitamin D deficiency was associated with a 60% increase in the risk of substantial cognitive decline (by a standard measure), according to David Llewellyn, PhD, of the University of Exeter in Exeter, England, and colleagues.

The findings -- if confirmed by further studies and randomized clinical trials -- "open up important new possibilities for treatment and prevention," Llewellyn and colleagues wrote in the July 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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A Day in the Life of a Person with a Cognitive Disability

by Tom Babinszki

Talk to someone about disabilities and I can assure you that normally, that person would at once think of wheelchair users or blind people. But although these are major disability groups, there is also one group which is less recognized yet is as equally significant as the ones mentioned above.

This group consists of persons with cognitive disabilities. People who have this type of disabilities have limitations in their ability to perceive, recognize, understand, and/or respond to information.

Here, we will provide you with a close look at someone who has this disability, the challenges he faces, and how he uses technology to lead a productive and independent life.
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Hospitalization Linked To Likelihood Of Cognitive Decline For Older Adults

from Medical News Today

Older patients hospitalized for acute care or a critical illness are more likely to experience cognitive decline compared to older adults who are not hospitalized, according to a study in the February 24 issue of JAMA.

A large proportion of patients who are hospitalized for acute care or care of a critical illness are older adults. Some studies have suggested that many survivors of critical illness experience long-term cognitive impairment, but these studies did not measure cognitive function before a critical illness, according to background information in the article.

William J. Ehlenbach, M.D., M.Sc., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues analyzed data from a study that was conducting cognitive testing on older adults, and examined administrative data from hospitalizations to determine whether hospitalizations for acute illness or critical illness were associated with cognitive decline and dementia. The study included data from 1994 through 2007 on 2,929 individuals, 65 years old and older without dementia at the beginning of the study. Cognition was measured with the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) every 2 years at follow-up visits, and those with scores below a certain point underwent a clinical examination for dementia.

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Overweight Middle-Aged Adults At Greater Risk For Cognitive Decline In Later Life

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from Medical News Today

The adverse affects of being overweight are not limited to physical function but also extend to neurological function, according to research in the latest issue of The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological and Medical Sciences (Volume 65A, Number 1).

The publication presents a collection of ten articles highlighting new findings related to obesity in older persons.

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Physical Activity May Be Associated With Reduced Cognitive Impairment In Elderly Population

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from Medical News Today

Moderate or high physical activity appears to be associated with a lower the risk of developing cognitive impairment in older adults after a two-year period. Thorleif Etgen, M.D., of Technische Universität München, Munich, and Klinikum Traunstein, Germany, and colleagues examined physical activity and cognitive function in 3,903 participants (older than 55) from southern Bavaria, Germany between 2001 and 2003.

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Alcohol Use And Cognitive Decline Among The Elderly

from Medical News Today

Studies of alcohol use and cognition among the elderly are rare and have mixed results. A study of drinking among the elderly in Brazil has found that heavy alcohol use is associated with more memory and cognitive problems than mild-to-moderate alcohol use, especially among women.

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Hypertension Linked to Thinking Problems in Middle Age - Forbes.com

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(HealthDay News) -- High blood pressure is linked to loss of mental function in people over 45, a new study finds. Read More