READ THIS: "CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that the diversity of clinical responses to Donepezil therapy in patients with AD is associated with rCBF changes, mainly in the frontal lobe. SPECT may be a promising tool to assess the impact of AchEI therapy on the brain function of patients with AD."

READ MORE: U.S. Pharmacist"Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive, functional, and behavioral impairment. In the absence of a cure, current therapies are focused on providing symptomatic benefit and improving patient and caregiver quality of life. More importantly, disease progression can be significantly delayed if treated early. The major challenge, however, is difficulty in clinical diagnosis of AD in early and even moderate stages of the disease.
A typical clinical course of AD progression is depicted in FIGURE 1....{more}

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Tulane University - READ MORE: "Men who have survived a heart attack are at increased risk of bone loss and osteoporosis in later life, says Tulane University researcher Jeanette H. Magnus.
'We have long known that heart disease and osteoporosis have similar risk factors, but this is the first study to examine the relationship between heart attack survivors and low bone mineral density,' says Magnus. Cigarette smoking, a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition are risk factors common to both chronic conditions. 'According to our data, people who reported a previous heart attack were more likely to have low bone mineral density than those who did not report a heart attack, but when examining this association separately for men and women it was only significant for men.'"

Primary source: Neurobiology of Aging READ MORE: "With a little task-specific training, the brains of older individuals can blunt cognitive functional decline and start to look and act younger, researchers here said.

Training for specific tasks not only improved performance in older people but caused increased activity in the ventral prefrontal cortex, a common site of age-related atrophy, reported Kirk I. Erickson, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois here.

The results suggests that age-related functional decline 'is not an inevitable process of aging, but can be reliably reduced and possibly reversed with training,' he and colleagues said in a study published online by the journal Neurobiology of Aging."

READ MORE - baltimoresun.com
: "It sounds cruel: binding a stroke victim's good arm to force use of the weak one. But those who tried it for two weeks were better off in the long run, greatly improving their ability to do everyday tasks, such as answering the phone, doctors reported yesterday.







Attending an American Stroke Association conference, they presented the results of the first large study of the treatment, called constraint or 'forced-use' therapy. It is especially promising because it involves no drugs or surgery, and therefore is relatively free of risk. 'About 23 to 30 percent of the stroke population would appear to benefit from this kind of treatment,' said Dr. Steven Wolf, a stroke rehabilitation specialist at Emory University in Atlanta who led the study."

United Press International -READ MORE: "The day when people retire at 85 and live well into their 100s may be on the horizon, thanks to promising research in anti-aging therapies, researchers said Friday.

In animal studies over the past 15 years, scientists have found that restricting the caloric intake of animals and mutating certain genes slows the aging process and makes them live longer.

'We've been wildly successful in extending life and improving health of a variety of animals. It has made even those of us who are skeptical think it might pan out with humans,' said Steven Austad, a biologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center. However, Austad added that such therapies have side effects in animals, such as a higher susceptibility to infectious diseases. 'This strikes me as a critically important issue that has been ignored,' he said.

He discussed the research on a panel on anti-aging and its possible social costs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in St. Louis.

There is a considerable chance that, in the next two decades, anti-aging therapy could increase a middle-aged person's life by 20 years, said Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist at the University of Cambridge in England."

READ MORE: "Their 20th wedding anniversary had just passed, but S. Christine Baker was introducing herself to her husband.

'Hey darling,' she said at his bedside. 'Hey, this is Chris, your wife.'

Her husband was lying with his eyes closed, only occasionally moving his head. Baker placed a paper napkin under his chin, took a plastic spoon and fed him vanilla ice cream, his favorite treat.

'Hey darling, this is me, the ice cream lady,' she said, touching his hair and kissing his forehead. 'Hey, it's Chris. Sorry to wake you up, but I want to see you. I love you, sweetheart.'..more"