Friday, December 23

Holidays can be tough for families coping with disease

CLICK FOR FULL STORY : "Support system key to living with Alzheimer's, expert says....Richard "Dick" Atkinson used to wrap all of the gifts he and his wife gave away for Christmas. He even used to help with the preparation of the traditional Christmas Eve family dinner. But for the past couple of Christmases, the only thing Richard has been able to do is take the loving guidance of his wife, Mary Lou........."

Successful aging may be partly in the genes

"If you make it to a ripe old age with all your marbles, credit might go to the gene you inherited.

Researchers have identified genes related to reaching age 90 with preserved brain function. Their study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and reported at a medical conference in Hawaii, is among the first to identify genetic links to long-lived mental powers.

"We defined successful aging as reaching age 90 without a significant decline in mental capacity because we could apply it objectively and consistently but also because it has a fair amount of face validity,"...."MORE| Reuters.co.uk

Thursday, December 22

Group says Medicare 'fleeces' taxpayers

Common drugs covered under the soon-to-begin Medicare drug benefit are set to cost seniors and taxpayers nearly 50 percent more on average than under the Veterans Administration health system, a consumer group charged today.

According to a study released Wednesday by the consumer health group Families USA, Medicare is set to pay significantly more for 19 of the 20 drugs most used by seniors and in one case may pay nearly seven times as much.

For example, a year's supply of 10 mg tablets of popular cholesterol drug Lipitor is $497.16 for veterans and $717.84 for Medicare beneficiaries, a 44-percent difference.more

NBC - Restorative Yoga Helps Speed Healing Process...Yoga Is Gentle Enough For Thosse with Alzheimers

Over the past 10 years, yoga has grown in popularity, and it's considered great for flexibility and relaxation....It's called restorative yoga, using gentile poses so patients can relax.
"It's a type of yoga that people can do who are very sick, who are fatigued and stressed," said Suzanne Danhauer, associate director of psychosocial oncology at the hospital. "And it's something that's very, very gentle." NBC ...CLICK FOR PHOTOS AND STORY

Medicare drug plan off to a strong start

U.S. health officials on Thursday said Medicare's new prescription drug program was off to a strong start, with more than 21 million elderly and disabled people set to receive coverage on January 1.

The Department of Health and Human Services is expecting between 28 million and 30 million beneficiaries to enroll for the new benefit by the end of 2006.MORE

!!!....Low brain estrogen linked to Alzheimer's in women

Post-mortem studies of the brains of women with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show a much lower estrogen content than similar women without the disorder, researchers report.

The findings may help explain the higher prevalence of AD in women than men, since animal experiments show brain estrogen deficiency accelerates the brain "plaque" build-up that characterizes the disease.MORE | Reuters.com

Wednesday, December 21

Research clarifies how brainreplenishes memory-making molecules

Memory-making neuron
University of California, San Francisco,

Holidays can be painful reminders of loss

This time of year means joyous celebrations and family gatherings for most people, but for those whose loved ones have Alzheimer's disease, the holidays can be a painful reinforcement of loss.MORE

Tuesday, December 20

Dementia disaster looms

Moore's Law is the maxim that computing power grows exponentially, doubling every two years. Now there's a grim corollary from the medical world: The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to roughly double every two decades.

That's the report in the new issue of The Lancet, the British Medical Journal. The study found that 24 million people worldwide are suffering from dementia today and that the numbers will rise to 42 million by 2020 and 81 million by 2040.United Press International - MORE

Memory Pharma's Alzheimers study on track

Memory Pharma said Tuesday that its Alzheimer drug MEM 1003 appears safe and well-tolerated in early studies.

The company said that preliminary findings from its Phase 1b U.S. safety and tolerability study of MEM 1003 in Alzheimer's patients showed the potential treatment is safe and generally well-tolerated at the doses tested.United Press International -MORE

Health plans differ for those on Medicare

A Harvard study says for those on Medicare, for-profit healthcare plans provide significantly lower quality of care than not-for-profit plans United Press International - MORE

Monday, December 19

Study shows that visually impaired people prefer to watch television enhanced with special processing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2005
Contact: Patti Jacobs, 617-872-0364, pjacobs12@comcast.net

Study shows that visually impaired people prefer to watch television enhanced with special processing

Results are first step in developing new home device...A scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute (SERI) found that increasing the contrast of details of certain sizes was of special importance in making television watching more enjoyable for the visually impaired.Schepens Eye Research Institute is a major affiliate of Harvard Medical School...MORE

Hope In Sight is an educational and motivational video for patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and their caretakers

AMD patient Bernie Resnick plays chess against the computer using magnification software in Hope In Sight. The right half of the image is contrast enhanced to illustrate the effect. The video was produced contrast enhanced on both halves.
The video was developed in collaboration with the New England Research Institute. The aim of the video is to teach viewers about eye anatomy, the effects of macular degeneration, simple environmental changes that can be made to adapt to the condition, available low-vision aid devices, and how to obtain information about other resources. A technique called cognitive restructuring (Lachman, 1992) is used to change the emotional response to the visual loss to a more positive and constructive approach, using personal stories told by real patients, not actors. more

Key brain antioxidant linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

A study conducted at the San Francisco VA Medical Center has identified a protein found in both mice and humans that appears to play a key role in protecting neurons from oxidative stress, a toxic process linked to neurodegenerative illnesses including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.MORE..University of California, San Francisco