Skip to main content

Latest Research News

A study involving 614 patients with type 2 diabetes (mean age 62) has found that longer duration of diabetes was associated with more brain volume loss, particularly in the gray matter. Roughly, for every 10 years of diabetes, the brain was similar to that of a non-diabetic person who was two years older.

However, the study did not confirm any association of diabetes characteristics with small vessel ischemic disease.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/rson-dda042214.php

A Finnish study has found that people who increased their intake of fatty fish to a minimum of 3–4 weekly meals had more large HDL cholesterol in their blood than people who were less frequent eaters of fish. Large HDL particles are believed to protect against cardiovascular diseases.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/uoef-iio030314.php

A new discovery helps explain why the “Alzheimer’s gene” ApoE4 is such a risk factor. It appears that ApoE4 causes a dramatic reduction in SirT1, an "anti-aging protein" that is targeted by resveratrol (present in red wine). This reduction in SirT1 was associated with a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein (APP) was processed. Moreover, there was evidence that ‘bad’ tau and amyloid-beta could be prevented by increasing SirT1.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/bifa-mar101613.php

A Finnish project (ALSOVA) has been following 240 patient-caregiver pairs, where the patient had very mild or mild Alzheimer's disease at the beginning of the study and had a family caregiver. A three-year follow-up of 115 patients has found that those diagnosed and treated very early were able to manage their everyday activities longer and suffered from less psychological and behavioral symptoms, compared to those diagnosed later.

Alzheimer's the evolutionary cost of better brains?