N.J. Nursing Home Sued for Reviving Alzheimer's Patient

Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer's..../Click for full press release from The Scripps Research Institute
"Discovery Could Lead to More Effective Treatments"

"Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, inhibits the formation of amyloid plaque, the primary pathological marker for Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the study said, THC is "a considerably superior inhibitor of [amyloid plaque] aggregation" to several currently approved drugs for treating the disease.

According to the new Scripps Research study, which used both computer modeling and biochemical assays, THC inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which acts as a "molecular chaperone" to accelerate the formation of amyloid plaque in the brains of Alzheimer victims. Although experts disagree on whether the presence of beta-amyloid plaques in those areas critical to memory and cognition is a symptom or cause, it remains a significant hallmark of the disease. With its strong inhibitory abilities, the study said, THC "may provide an improved therapeutic for Alzheimer's disease" that would treat "both the symptoms and progression" of the disease.

"While we are certainly not advocating the use of illegal drugs, these findings offer convincing evidence that THC possesses remarkable inhibitory qualities, especially when compared to AChE inhibitors currently available to patients," said Kim Janda, Ph.D., who is Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research, a member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, and director of the Worm Institute of Research and Medicine. "In a test against propidium, one of the most effective inhibitors reported to date, THC blocked AChE-induced aggregation completely, while the propidium did not. Although our study is far from final, it does show that there is a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which THC may directly affect the progression of Alzheimer's disease."....

As the new study points out, any new treatment that could halt or even slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease would have a major impact on the quality of life for patients, as well as reducing the staggering health care costs associated with the disease....."

"Drinking black tea reduces measures of stress-related hormones and harmful cardiovascular changes, reported researchers here. In short, it seems to calm jangled nerves.":

Antioxidant-rich Pecans Can Protect Against Unhealthy Oxidation (CLICK FOR MORE):

"A new research study from Loma Linda University (LLU) shows that adding just a handful of pecans to your diet each day may inhibit unwanted oxidation of blood lipids, thus helping reduce the risk of heart disease. Researchers suggest that this positive effect was in part due to the pecan's significant content of vitamin E.

'Plant foods, including pecans, are rich sources of phytochemicals that can have a unique effect on the body,' says LLU researcher Ella Haddad, DrPH, associate professor, department of nutrition, School of Public Health.

Pecans contain different forms of vitamin E -- known as tocopherols -- which protects fats from oxidation. Pecans are especially rich in one form of vitamin E -- gamma tocopherol.

'We found that eating pecans increased levels of gamma tocopherol concentrations in the blood and subsequently reduced a marker of lipid oxidation,' adds Dr. Haddad.

Oxidation of fats in the blood -- a process akin to rusting -- is detrimental to health. When the 'bad' cholesterol becomes oxidized, it is more likely to build up and result in arteriosclerosis.

These latest research findings on pecan's healthfulness were published in the latest issue of Nutrition Research, just released this week. They are from the second phase of a research project designed to evaluate the health benefits of pecans, according to Dr. Haddad. She analyzed blood samples from study participants (a total of 23 men and women between the ages of 25 and 55) who ate two diets: one that contained pecans and one that did not. Participants were randomly placed on either the American Heart Association's Step I diet or a pecan-enriched version of the Step I diet. (The pecan-enriched diet was similar to the Step I diet but replaced 20 percent of calories with pecans). After four weeks on one diet, they then switched to the other diet..."

Heart Attack Signs Vary - CBS News (CLICK FOR MORE):

"Both men and women can experience 'atypical' heart attack symptoms, as well as classic signs of a heart attack.

People need to know that so they seek emergency help immediately for those symptoms. But some patients may have mistaken beliefs about heart attack differences in men and women, say Jill Quinn and Kathleen King of the University of Rochester’s nursing school in New York.

Quinn, PhD, RN, CS-ANP, is an assistant professor specializing in cardiovascular nursing. King, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a professor with a focus on women and heart disease.

'Expectations that only women experience atypical symptoms can lead to confusion for both men and women, resulting in delay [of seeking treatment],' they told the Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease, and Stroke, which is underway in Orlando, Fla.

25 Steps To Better Health , Report Lists Leading Preventive Health Services - CBS News (CLICK FOR MORE):

"The Partnership for Prevention has released a report listing the top 25 preventive health services.

The report, 'Priorities for America’s Health: Capitalizing on Life-Saving, Cost-Effective Preventive Strategies,' was funded by the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

'Currently, about 95 percent of health care dollars in the United States are spent on treating diseases, with relatively little attention paid to preventing diseases, which should be a national priority,” states former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., in a Partnership for Prevention news release.

'Basically, these are the preventive health services that offer the biggest bang for the buck,' says Satcher, who chaired the panel that drafted the list.

List of Top 25 Preventive Health Services
Here is the report's list of the top 25 preventive health services, along with the score assigned by the panel (with 10 being the highest score):..."

Lucentis Stalls Blood Vessel Growth in Macular Degeneration - CME Teaching Brief� - MedPage TodayLucentis (ranibizumab) is an effective treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration, according to two large randomized controlled trials.
Action Points

One of the reports found that over two years, on average, patients receiving injections of Lucentis gained more than one line of visual acuity on a standard eye chart, whereas those receiving sham injections lost more than two lines.

The second study found that at one year the average patient receiving Lucentis gained about two lines of visual acuity. By contrast, the average patient receiving photodynamic therapy as a sham treatment lost about two lines on the eye chart.

In both studies, which appeared, in the Oct. 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. the most feared complication, bacterial infection inside the eye, occurred in one of every 2,000 injections.....

Alzheimer's treatments: What's on the horizon? - MayoClinic.com
Despite many promising leads, new treatments for Alzheimer's are slow to emerge. Future treatments will likely focus on stopping the disease in people at risk.

Alzheimer's treatments consist mainly of medications that stabilize cognitive function, if only for a short period of time. These drugs stage a holding action, primarily postponing further cognitive declines.

But the Alzheimer's treatments of the future will focus more on preventing the disease, which can begin decades before a person experiences its signs and symptoms. Increasingly, even as investigators work to detect Alzheimer's at its earliest stage, they're also looking to arrest its progress when the effects may still be reversible.

Alzheimer's vaccine
Early studies in mice showed that immunization with amyloid-beta peptide reduced the number of plaques — clusters of abnormal cells associated with Alzheimer's disease — in the brain. But a trial of an Alzheimer's vaccine in humans was halted after some participants developed brain inflammation.

Scientists continue to search for an Alzheimer's vaccine that will not produce such dangerous side effects.

Secretase inhibitors
Medications called secretase inhibitors interrupt the actions of enzymes that lead to plaques in the brain. To be safe, though, these drugs must be able to target only the harmful actions of secretase and not interfere with the enzymes' normal functions in the body.

Another major challenge is that a secretase-inhibiting drug must be able to cross the blood-brain barrier that surrounds and protects the brain from foreign substances in the blood. This barrier typically doesn't allow large molecules to pass into the brain.

Cardiovascular therapies
Some studies have shown that taking statins — cholesterol-lowering drugs — in midlife reduces a person's risk of dementia. Other studies, however, have failed to find this association. If there is a link between high cholesterol and Alzheimer's, the risk of Alzheimer's could be reduced by controlling cholesterol levels through diet and medication.

Along similar lines, a large study found that people who took medications to lower blood pressure had a reduced risk of vascular dementia, which is caused by a series of small strokes. Because vascular dementia and Alzheimer's appear to be linked, controlling high blood pressure may also help prevent Alzheimer's.

Anti-inflammatory agents
Inflammation appears to play a role in Alzheimer's, although it's still unknown if it's a cause or an effect of the disease.

Several studies indicate that anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others), naproxen sodium (Aleve) and indomethacin (Indocin), may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. But these types of drugs can also cause serious gastrointestinal bleeding, so more studies are needed to determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

Hormones
Early studies indicated that hormone replacement therapy, typically prescribed to ease menopausal symptoms, might protect women over the age of 65 against Alzheimer's. But more recent studies not only refute these findings, but also suggest that this hormone therapy might even increase the risk of dementia.

The timing of the hormone replacement therapy may be the reason for apparently contradictory results. Some researchers speculate that early hormone therapy, during a woman's 50s, may be protective, while later use becomes harmful.

Medications that mimic estrogen's effects, such as the osteoporosis drug raloxifene (Evista), may provide cognitive benefits without estrogen's risks.

In men, low testosterone levels have been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers are investigating whether testosterone supplements might help men who have Alzheimer's or are at risk of the disease, but the results have been mixed.

Timeline for answers
New Alzheimer's treatments take time to develop, and then even more studies are needed to establish a treatment's safety and effectiveness. But all this time and effort will eventually pay off. Most researchers expect to see major progress in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's in the next few decades....

Double Jeopardy: Obese Smokers at Higher Risk of Death [click for more]People who are both very obese and who smoke increase their risk of death by 3.5 to 5 times that of people of normal weight who never smoke, finds a study in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to the study, 20 percent of obese adults in the United States smoke, which puts them at a higher risk of death caused by cancer and circulatory disease. The authors further found that, in general, being a current smoker was a far stronger risk factor for cancer death than being obese.

“Smoking has been known as a very strong risk factor for many cancers, particularly lung cancer, which is the most common site of cancer death,” said lead author D. Michal Freedman, Ph.D., of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute.

The study surveyed more than 80,000 current and former radiologic technologists between the ages of 22 and 92 who completed a self-administered questionnaire in the period from 1983 to 1989. They all were followed through December 2002 and the number of deaths was reported.

The questionnaire collected information such as birth date, height, weight and smoking behavior. Participants’ body mass indexes were calculated from their weight and height A BMI of 30 to 34.9 was considered obese, and more than 35 was very obese.

Smoking behaviors were categorized by duration, intensity and current status. Freedman and her colleagues analyzed a measure that included both cigarettes smoked per day and duration of smoking. They found, in general, that more smoking or “pack-years” was related to a higher risk of death.

Also, in both women and men of all ages, the risk of death from circulatory disease increased with each additional increment in the BMI. When participants were obese and also current smokers, their risk of death from circulatory disease jumped even higher to an increase of 6- to 11-fold for those under age 65, compared to the participants of normal weight who never smoked.

The study......

Warning signs:Threats like rising obesity rate could make diabetes an epidemic [click for more]William Flynn remembers all too well the weekend in high school when he could not quench his thirst. In just a few days, he drank an entire case of Coke.

By Sunday, he felt terribly sick.

His blood sugar had soared to the scary level of 500, more than triple the normal range.

Doctors diagnosed him with juvenile diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body does not manufacture enough insulin. To survive, he would need to inject himself with insulin daily and closely monitor his diet and exercise.

"I felt like I was being destroyed," recalled Flynn. "I had to gain control over it."

He has been doing just that for 18 years now.

One recent afternoon, Flynn, 37, a man with the impish smile and boyish looks of Matthew Broderick, came home from work at Phillips Academy in Andover and quickly attended to his diabetes needs. He jabbed a finger stick into his skin to draw blood to measure his glucose level, noting that it feels like pushing in a thumb tack. His injection of insulin would come a...

Aging Well, Living Well (click here for more)Americans are living longer than ever before, and many seniors are living active, healthy, and productive lives. A woman who is 65 today can expect to live, on average, another 19 years to age 84. Many of you are using this extra time volunteering in your communities, traveling, and spending more time with family and friends. Taking good care of your body and mind will help you enjoy your golden years.

Key health issues for older women include:

Cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease and stroke)

Cancer

Mental health disorders

The medical community has focused a great deal of attention on health issues facing older women in recent years. More older women are being represented in medical research studies such as the Women's Health Initiative, which included over 150,000 postmenopausal women. Such research has helped health care providers learn much about menopause, osteoporosis, heart disease, and other conditions that are important to women. More research has also been done on the prevention of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer.

Older women still have higher rates of disability than men of the same age, not because more women develop disabilities than men, but rather women with disabilities survive longer than men. Taking good care of yourself, including.....

What’s New in Joint Replacement Surgery?


Joint replacement surgery may be the most appropriate option when persistent joint pain, due to arthritis, causes disability and interferes with daily life. This commonly applies to the hip or knee where a degenerative form of arthritis, called osteoarthritis, often develops.

After all other courses of treatment have been tried, joint replacement surgery can dramatically reduce pain and restore a person’s quality-of-life. Called arthroplasty, the surgery involves removing the damaged joint and replacing it with an artificial one.

Latest in joint replacement surgery
Considered a major surgery, new technology and advances in surgical and anesthetic techniques have greatly reduced the risks involved with joint replacement surgery. For example, Brigham and Women’s surgeons operating on the knee are now using a minimally invasive technique that is as effective as traditional open surgery but provides important advantages.

Minimally invasive rotating platform total knee replacement is a relatively new procedure that uses a less invasive technique that reduces blood loss and tissue trauma. The goal of minimally invasive total knee replacement is to improve short-term results without changing the excellent long-term outcome. Most patients who require total knee replacement can be appropriate candidates for the minimally invasive approach.

Other important advances include developments in anesthesia and pain management that speed rehabilitation and play a pivotal role in successful minimally invasive knee replacement surgery.

“In the past, the surgery involved significant incisions to the knee and caused trauma to the surrounding tissue, which resulted in long, painful recuperation periods. These latest techniques directly help patients by reducing pain and shortening their recovery,” says Thomas S. Thornhill, MD, Orthopedist-in-Chief within the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

Latest scanning device finds heart disease, and controversy, quickly [CLICK 4 MORE]
"Coming soon to a medical center near you: a much-anticipated but controversial X-ray machine that can detect heart disease in five seconds.

Although the 64-slice CT scanner can be used to see other parts of the body, its most talked-about ability is to detect blockages in coronary arteries.

Highly precise, 3-D images show if a patient's symptoms, such as chest pain, are caused by heart disease and require an invasive procedure such as catheterization to correct.
Cardiologists say that the machine is not as reliable for someone with previously treated heart disease. The better option in those cases is to go straight to catheterization, they advise.

Limitations aside, doctors rave about how quickly the scanner can rule out serious cardiac complications.

More than 1,000 of the machines have been installed worldwide since their rollout two years ago. They got a celebrity boost when Oprah Winfrey underwent a cardiac check with the device on her TV talk show last year.

“Ever since Oprah, I've been bombarded by physicians in other parts of the country (and) even from Japan, France and Saudi Arabia” who want their patients to be scanned, said Dr. John Hauschildt of Rady Children's Hospital in Kearny Mesa, the first facility in the county to get the 64-slice CT scanner.

The machine is not without its critics. Some cardiologists worry that it will be overused, exposing people who have no symptoms or risk factors for heart.....

Brian Finnegan holds a binder with pictures of his mother and information about Alzheimer's Disease. Finnegan, whose mother has had the disease for 12 years, will be the grand marshal of the Alzheimer's Walk on Oct. 14
Alzheimer’s: A ‘horrible’ family experience

The Smith family: stories from the families...[MORE]
"The third and final stage of Alzheimer's disease begins with a steep cognitive slide.

"I prepared myself," Ericka Smith said, "so it was like, here we are. She doesn't know who I am. OK."

By early 2004, a full-time caregiver had moved into the Smith's Orinda home to help care for Suzie. By the end of the year, a second full-time caregiver had moved in, too, to help on weekends, evenings and whenever the need arose. But by January 2005, the situation was untenable.

Early Onset patients are not feeble. They may no longer recognize their families or caregivers, or understand what a toilet or shower is for, but they can fight off what, to them, appears to be a physical assault. Instead of seeing a beloved daughter or trusted caregiver, they see a total stranger who is stripping off their clothes and shoving them, however gently, into a tiled cubicle full of water.

For the Smiths, the whole thing came to a head the weekend that Ericka's father, Rick, went to San Diego to see some old Navy buddies. By some strange alignment of stars, all six turned out to have spouses with Early Onset Alzheimer's.

Back in Orinda, all hell had broken loose.

"She bit me four times," Ericka recalled. "It took three of us to get her to the bathroom. She chased me around the house. She thought that I was going to murder her."

The family did an emergency check-in at an Alzheimer's residence facility that Rick's Navy buddies recommended. Suzie has lived there ever since. Now 59, Suzie does not recognize her family when...."

"Cabernet Sauvignon Red Wine Reduces the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease"
PRESS RELEASE: Mount Sinai School of Medicine

"A new study directed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine has found that moderate red wine consumption in a form of Cabernet Sauvignon may help reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The study entitled “ Moderate Consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon Attenuates β-amyloid Neuropathology in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease” is in press, and will be published in the November 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal. The breakthrough study will also be presented at the “Society for Neuroscience Meeting” held in Atlanta, Georgia, October 14-18, 2006.

“ Our study is the first to report that moderate consumption of red wine in a form of Cabernet Sauvignon delivered in the drinking water for ~7 months significantly reduces AD-type β-amyloid neuropathology, and memory deterioration in ~11-month-old transgenic mice that model AD,” reported researchers Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti and Dr. Jun Wang at Mount Sinai. “This study supports epidemiological evidence indicating that moderate wine consumption, within the range recommended by the FDA dietary guidelines of one drink per day for women and two for men, may help reduce the relative risk for AD clinical dementia.”

“This new breakthrough is another step forward in Alzheimer’s research at Mount Sinai and across the globe for this growing health concern that has devastating effects,” say Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author of the study and Dr. Jun Wang, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and co-Author of the study. “These findings give researchers and millions of families a glimpse of light at the end of the long dark tunnel for future prevention of this disease.”

People with AD exhibit elevated levels of beta-amyloid peptides that cause plaque buildup in the brain, which is the main characteristic of AD. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have AD. Presently, there are no known cures or effective preventive strategies. While genetic factors are responsible in early-onset cases, they appear to play less of a role in late-onset-sporadic AD cases, the most common form of AD. However, lifestyle factors such as diet and now moderate wine consumption are receiving increasing attention for its potential preventative impact on AD.

Using mice, with AD-type β-amyloid (Aβ) neuropathology, researchers at Mount Sinai tested whether moderate consumption of the red wine Cabernet Sauvignon changes AD-type neuropathology and cognitive deterioration. The wine used was delivered in a final concentration of approximately 6 percent ethanol. It was found that Cabernet Sauvignon significantly reduced AD-type deterioration of spatial memory function and Aβ neuropathology in mice relative to control mice that were treated with either a comparable amount of ethanol or water alone. Cabernet Sauvignon was found to exert a beneficial effect by promoting non-amyloidogenic processing of amyloid precursor protein, which ultimately prevents the generation of AD β-amyloid neuropathology.....

Bayer says mistakenly failed to disclose drug data [MORE Reuters.com]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - German drug maker Bayer AG "mistakenly" failed to inform U.S. regulators about a study on the risks of heart-surgery drug Trasylol before an advisory panel met and ruled the side effects were acceptable, the company said on Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said the early findings from a new review of hospital records from 67,000 patients suggested Trasylol use may increase the chances of death, serious kidney damage, congestive heart failure and strokes.

The agency said it was reviewing the data to decide how they would impact current advice to limit Trasylol use to cases in which doctors believe reducing blood loss during bypass surgery is essential and outweighs possible risks.....