The Healthy Should Not Take Aspirin to Avoid Heart Attack
March 3, 2010
telegraph.co.uk
By Rebecca Smith
Millions of people take a low dose of aspirin daily, as it is known to reduce the risk of having a heart attack or stroke in people who have already had one attack.
It is seen as a ‘just in case’ measure and, because aspirin has been available for around 100 years, it is considered safe by the majority of people.
However, aspirin increases the likelihood of major bleeding, in the brain, stomach or elsewhere in the body, and experts warned that the beneficial effects must be weighed against the risk of harm.
Aspirin, which thins the blood, has been hailed as a wonder drug because it is wide range of uses including reducing the risk of a second heart attack or stroke, increasing evidence that it may prevent some cancers and may have an affect on dementia.
Research carried out in Scotland and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that aspirin taken by people who have no outward symptoms of heart disease did not reduce the risk of a heart attack when compared to those on a dummy pill.
Those on aspirin were at almost twice the risk of suffering a bleed, although the overall risk was small, the study found.
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: “We know that a small daily dose of aspirin can reduce the risk of a heart attack in people with angina and in those who’ve had a heart attack. In these cases, this potential benefit outweighs the risk of internal bleeding, which is a side effect of aspirin.
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Psychiatric Drugs Being Prescribed to Dementia Patients For Profit
February 8, 2010
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
Elderly dementia patients are being subjected to “scandalous abuse” by being drugged with dangerous antipsychotic drugs, according to a letter by ten influential health organizations, published in The Daily Telegraph.
“[One hundred thousand] people with dementia in care homes are being inappropriately prescribed a damaging chemical cosh of antipsychotic drugs and new research suggests that there is a significant problem in hospitals too,” the letter reads. “Antipsychotics should only ever be a last resort. This over prescription is abuse and it must stop. … We cannot stand by while this scandalous abuse of vulnerable citizens continues.”
Although antipsychotic drugs are intended for people with medical conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and are not approved for the treatment of dementia, studies show that nursing homes and hospitals regularly prescribe them to these patients as sedatives, in order to make them easier for doctors and nurses to handle.
Research has shown, however, that antipsychotic drugs can double a patient’s risk of death if used for three years. Another study found that dementia patients are three times more likely to suffer a stroke if given antipsychotic drugs.
A 2008 report by British Minister of Parliament Paul Burstow concluded that 23,500 dementia patients are being killed every year by inappropriate prescription of antipsychotics in nursing homes. However, a recent survey by the Alzheimer’s Society marks the first time that researchers have looked into the prevalence of the problem in hospitals.
The trust found that three-quarters of nurses surveyed said they had seen antipsychotics used to sedate dementia patients, while one-quarter said they had seen the drugs used inappropriately.
“The massive over prescription of antipsychotics to people with dementia is an abuse of human rights, causing serious side effects and increasing risk of death,” said Neil Hunt of the Alzheimer’s Society. “The government must take action to ensure that these drugs are only ever used as a last resort.”
“While the Department of Health prevaricates, thousands of people are being put at risk through the misuse of antipsychotics,” said Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.
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Mammograms Being Pushed on Elderly Women With Alzheimer’s
February 5, 2010
Natural News
By Sherry Baker
Here’s a story about the mammography industry that sounds almost too crazy — and too greedy — to be true. But the facts are documented in a new study by University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) researchers. It turns out that unneeded, expensive mammograms are being pushed on elderly women who are incapacitated from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, especially if the women have savings or assets of $100,000 or more.
The study, which was just published in the January edition of American Journal of Public Health, used 2002 data from the Health and Retirement Study, an ongoing national prospective study sponsored by the National Institute on Aging that is investigating the relationship between health, income, and wealth over time. The researchers were able to document screening mammography rates by compiling information from Medicare claims.
When they looked closely at the mammogram history of 2,131 elderly women with severe cognitive impairment, the research team found nearly 20 percent received mammograms (compared to 45 percent of women with normal mental status) — even though these women were unlikely to live three more years and mammograms are not indicated for women with a life expectancy of five years or less. However, the rate of mammograms ordered for elderly women with severe dementia went up dramatically if they were married and the couple still had tens of thousands of dollars in assets. In fact, the rate of unnecessary screening mammography for seriously cognitively impaired women soared to nearly 50 percent if they were still married and the couple’s net worth was $100,000 or more.
It’s important to note that the women who were studied were given mammograms not because a suspicious lump had been detected during a physical exam. Instead, these dementia patients were subjected to screening mammography to see if any hidden masses could be spotted that were not causing any symptoms but could possibly cause problems in the future.
Geriatrics researcher and lead author Dr. Kala Mehta pointed out in a statement to the press that “a woman must have a life expectancy of at least four to five years,” for a mammogram to possibly do any good; whereas, the severely cognitively impaired women in this study had a life expectancy of only 3.3 years on average. “Otherwise,” she stated, “the potential harms are likely to outweigh the benefits.”
What are those harms, specifically? Dr. Mehta lists them as invasive follow-up tests such as biopsies in women who don’t have the mental capacity to know what is going on and surgery for asymptomatic lumps that would almost certainly never cause any problems for these women in their lifetimes. What’s more, all this unneeded and expensive medical intervention diverts time and money away from the daily needs of women with profound dementia. Bottom line: unnecessary mammograms can cruelly rob these women of whatever quality of life they have left.
The study authors concluded that screening mammography guidelines should be enforced that explicitly recommend against screening severely cognitively impaired older women. “I don’t think most people would say that putting a very demented older woman through screening mammography is a good thing,” stated principal investigator Louise C. Walter, MD, an associate professor of medicine at UCSF, in the press statement.
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HIV and AIDS Drugs Aging Brain
February 3, 2010
Natural News
By S.L Baker
In a report just published online in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California at San Diego say they’ve found a reduction of blood flow in the brains of people who are infected with HIV, the virus believed to cause AIDS. What makes this so concerning is that it indicates something is rapidly aging the brains of these patients. In fact, the blood flow in the brains of the HIV-infected research subjects was reduced to levels normally seen in uninfected persons who are 15 to 20 years older.
Does this mean HIV is causing premature brain aging? Maybe. However there’s another possibility: according to the researchers, the drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS might play a role in this super fast brain aging.
AIDS drugs may damage the brain
Previous studies have found the HIV virus may adversely affect many parts of the body, including the heart, liver, kidneys, endocrine system and skeleton. Although a strong “cocktail” of antiviral medications has been credited with extending the life span of those with HIV, these drugs are known to come with a host of side effects — many of which are health problems often associated with aging. For example, the drugs can cause anemia, digestive problems, peripheral neuropathy and osteoporosis. So it can be difficult to distinguish between any signs of rapid aging that are due to HIV or to the drugs used to treat it.
When it comes to the brain, HIV patients are sometimes known to develop dementia. And HIV infected people often complain of thinking problems.
“The graying of the AIDS patient community makes this infection’s effects on the brain a significant source of concern,” Beau Ances, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurology at Washington University and first author of the new study, said in a statement to the media. “Patients are surviving into their senior years, and a number of them are coming forward to express concerns about problems they’re having with memory and other cognitive functions.”
To investigate possible premature brain aging in HIV patients, Dr. Ances and his research team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and a new technique known as arterial spin labeling that allows precise, non-invasive blood flow measurement to check the brain blood flow in 26 subjects with HIV. The scientists also looked at the brains of 25 uninfected controls. Both groups were about the same age and had the same education.
When the study participants were resting in the scanner, the brain blood flow was found to be significantly reduced in those who tested positive for HIV compared to those in the uninfected control group. Significantly, the scientists found that having HIV was associated with reduced brain blood flow even among the younger, most recently infected patients.
The research team asked the research subjects to perform a visual task which normally triggers blood flow to increase in specific regions of the brain involved in the task. The MRIs revealed the HIV group had greater blood flow increases, suggesting their brains had to work harder in order to accomplish the task.
“Brain blood flow levels decline naturally as we age, but HIV, the medications we use to control it or some combination of the two appear to be accelerating this process independent of aging. Could we reduce the harmful effects of the virus if we started treatment earlier, or does treatment significantly contribute to the harm that’s being done?” Dr. Ances said in a press statement. “These are the kinds of issues we urgently need to start examining as the AIDS patient population ages.”
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High Blood Pressure May Increase Risk of Dementia
January 26, 2010
The Canadian Press
by Lauran Neergaard
If the cardiologist’s warnings don’t scare you, consider this: Controlling blood pressure just might be the best protection yet known against dementia.
In a flurry of new research, scientists scanned people’s brains to show hypertension fuels a kind of scarring linked to later development of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Those scars can start building up in middle age, decades before memory problems will appear.
The evidence is strong enough that the U.S. National Institutes of Health soon will begin enrolling thousands of hypertension sufferers in a major study to see if aggressive treatment – pushing blood pressure lower than currently recommended – better protects not just their hearts but their brains.
“If you look … for things that we can prevent that lead to cognitive decline in the elderly, hypertension is at the top of the list,” Dr. Walter Koroshetz, deputy director of NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, told The Associated Press.
Age is the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia that affect about one in eight people 65 or older.
Scientists have long noticed that some of the same triggers for heart disease – high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes – seem to increase the risk of dementia, too. But for years, they thought that link was with “vascular dementia,” memory problems usually linked to small strokes, and not the scarier classic Alzheimer’s disease.
Now those lines are blurring as specialists realize that many if not most patients have a mix of the two dementias. Somehow, factors like hypertension – blood pressure readings of 140 over 90 or higher – that weaken arteries also seem to spur Alzheimer’s disease-like processes.
One suspect: Scarring known as white matter lesions. White matter acts as the brain’s telephone network, a system of axons, or nerve fibres, that allow brain cells to communicate with each other. Even slightly elevated blood pressure can damage the tiny blood vessels that nourish white matter, interrupting those signals.
Among the strongest new studies:
-MRI scans showed women 65 and older with high blood pressure had significantly more white matter lesions in their brains eight years later. The study included 1,403 women who were enrolled in a memory subset of the landmark Women’s Health Initiative that tracked postmenopausal health. The worse their blood pressure, the higher volume of white matter damage, says the study published online last month in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.
“This is a silent disease in the brain,” says lead researcher Dr. Lewis Kuller of the University of Pittsburgh. “It’s evolving over time and it leads to very bad outcomes.”
-The journal Stroke just published similar evidence from a Johns Hopkins University-led study that tracked 983 people for more than 15 years, starting in middle age. The longer people spent with uncontrolled high blood pressure, the more white matter damage they accumulated. The researchers could see a change with each 20-point jump in too-high systolic pressure, the top number in a blood-pressure reading.
Clearly, hypertension alone doesn’t doom someone to later dementia. Far more people, nearly one in three U.S. adults, have hypertension.
And there are plenty of other reasons to lower blood pressure: Hypertension is a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.
But while some studies have found hypertension treatment lowered the dementia risk, others haven’t.
Enter the NIH’s SPRINT study, which in a few months is to begin enrolling 7,500 hypertension patients age 55 and older around the country. The test: Whether aggressive treatment to lower systolic blood pressure below 120 – what’s considered normal – will prove healthier than today’s guidelines that urge getting it below 140, or 130 for diabetics.
The main focus is on heart and kidney health. But all participants will be screened for dementia, and a subset will undergo repeated cognitive testing and MRI scans to tell if lowering blood pressure also protects against a slide toward dementia. Another question: If older patients can tolerate bigger than usual blood pressure drops without side effects, such as falls.
With dementia rising fast as the population greys, even a small effect from better blood pressure control could have a big public health impact, says Dr. William Thies of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Other dementia-preventing efforts, such as targeting the sticky amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s patients brains, haven’t panned out so far – while hypertension control has little downside, notes Pittsburgh’s Kuller.
Blueberry Juice Could Stave Off Dementia & Improve Memory
January 22, 2010
Web Md
By Jennifer Warner
Swapping out the usual OJ for blueberry juice in the morning may give your brain a memory boost.
A new study shows that drinking a daily dose of wild blueberry juice improved the memory of older adults with age-related memory problems.
It’s the first study to show a potential benefit of blueberries in improving memory in older adults at risk for dementia.
“The findings of this preliminary study suggest that moderate-term blueberry supplementation can confer neurocognitive benefit,” write researcher Robert Krikorian, of the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center, and colleagues in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Researchers say blueberries contain a wealth of phytochemicals that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, animal studies have shown that the polyphenols found in blueberries, anthocyanins, have been shown to increase signaling in brain centers associated with memory as well as improve how the brain gets rid of glucose, all of which may help slow memory decline.
In the study, researchers looked at the effects of drinking wild blueberry juice on memory decline in nine adults in their 70s who were experiencing age-related memory decline problems, such as memory lapses.
The participants drank about two and a half cups each day of blueberry juice made from commercially available frozen wild blueberries for 12 weeks. A comparison group of seven older adults drank a similar amount of placebo non-juice beverage for the same time period.
Researchers conducted memory tests, such as word association and list learning and recall tasks, at the beginning and end of the study.
The results showed that those who drank blueberry juice showed significant improvement on learning and memory tests compared to the placebo group.
Researchers say there were also trends suggesting reduced symptoms of depression and lower glucose levels among the wild blueberry juice drinkers, but further research will be needed to confirm these results.
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Eye Test To Spot Alzheimer’s 20 Years Before Symptoms
January 15, 2010
Mail Online
By Fiona Macrae
A test that can detect Alzheimer’s up to 20 years before any symptoms show is being developed by British scientists.
The simple and inexpensive eye test could be part of routine examinations by high street opticians in as little as three years, allowing those in middle age to be screened.
Dementia experts said it had the power to revolutionise the treatment of Alzheimer’s by making it possible for drugs to be given in the earliest stages.
The technique, being pioneered at University College London, could also speed up the development of medication capable of stopping the disease in its tracks, preventing people from ever showing symptoms.
Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer’s Trust, said: ‘These findings have the potential to transform the way we diagnose Alzheimer’s, greatly enhancing efforts to develop new treatments.’
Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia blight the lives of 700,000 Britons and their families, and the number of cases is expected to double within a generation.
There is no cure and existing drugs do not work for everyone.
Current diagnosis is based on memory tests, and expensive brain scans are also sometimes used.
However decisive proof of the disease usually comes from examination of the patient’s brain after death.
The eye test would provide a quick, easy, cheap and highly-accurate diagnosis.
It exploits the fact that the light-sensitive cells in the retina at the back of the eye are a direct extension of the brain.
Using eye drops which highlight diseased cells, the UCL researchers showed for the first time in a living eye that the amount of damage to cells in the retina directly corresponds with brain cell death.
They have also pinpointed the pattern of retinal cell death characteristic of Alzheimer’s. So far their diagnosis has been right every time.
With research showing that cells start to die ten to 20 years before the symptoms of Alzheimer’s become evident, it could allow people to be screened in middle age for signs of the disease.
However, some may not want to know their fate so far in advance. There is also the fear that insurance companies could increase premiums for those who test positive while still young.
The experiments, reported in the journal Cell Death & Disease, have been on animals but the team are poised to start the first human trials.
Researcher Professor Francesca Cordeiro said: ‘The equipment used for this research is essentially the same as is used in clinics and hospitals worldwide.
‘It is also inexpensive and non-invasive, which makes us fairly confident that we can progress quickly to its use in patients.
‘It is entirely possible that in the future a visit to a high street optician to check on your eyesight will also be a check on the state of your brain.’
The technique could also improve the diagnosis of other conditions, including glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease.
In the short term, an early diagnosis would give patients and their families much more time to prepare for the future.
In the longer term, it would allow new drugs that stop the disease in their tracks to reach their full potential.
Professor Cordeiro said: ‘If you give the treatment early enough, you can stop the disease progressing, full stop.’
Dr Susanne Sorensen, of the Alzheimer’s Society, cautioned that the test was still experimental but added: ‘This research is very exciting. If we can delay the onset of dementia by five years, we can halve the number of people who will die from the disease.’
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Research Shows We are Behind on Alzheimer’s Advancements
December 18, 2009
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
Research is emerging that casts serious doubt on the major hypothesis as to the cause of Alzheimer’s disease, raising questions as to whether scientists really understand the disease at all.
The most effective drug currently in use for the treatment of Alzheimer’s is not any of the complex drugs developed or used in the United States or in Western Europe, which slow cognitive decline for only about six to nine months. That honor goes to a Russian antihistamine named dimebolin, which reverses the symptoms of Alzheimer’s for a full year. Although not currently approved for U.S. use by the FDA, dimebolin is shaking up the Alzheimer’s research world.
In a study conducted by researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Vienna, dimebolin was found to drastically improve symptoms at the same time that it led to a drastic increase in the levels of the beta amyloid protein in brain cells, both in cell-based experiments and in the brains of mice. Yet beta amyloids are the very molecules that most Western researchers have, until recently, believed to be the cause of the disease, by forming sticky plaques in the brain that interfere with neural functioning.
“I would say that conventional wisdom in the field … is that an amyloid benefit would mean amyloid-lowering,” researcher Sam Gandy said. “Certainly, up until now, no one has been looking (intentionally) to treat Alzheimer’s by raising amyloid levels. [So] it was startling to observe that a compound with an apparently beneficial clinical effect on cognition caused acute elevation of amyloid beta levels in three out of three systems, in two labs.”
The pharmaceutical industry has been pouring massive amounts of time and money into drugs capable of lowering amyloid levels directly – efforts that it now seems may do more harm than good. In light of recent findings, some researchers are now suggesting that amyloid plaques might actually function as a toxic waste dump of sorts, sequestering dangerous compounds to defend the brain from further damage. If so, eliminating them might drastically accelerate the progress of dementia.
Halt Alzheimer’s and Dementia with Flavonoids
December 2, 2009
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
Evidence continues to mount that the family of plant compounds known as flavonoids can help slow or even halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Flavonoids are a family of chemicals that have been widely studied for a variety of health benefits. They are powerful antioxidants and occur in high concentrations in a variety of fruits and vegetables, particularly citrus fruits, berries, grapes, onions, parsley and legumes. Other good sources include tea (especially green and white), red wine, dark chocolate, ginkgo biloba and seabuckthorn.
Researchers warn that much dark chocolate found in stores is actually relatively low in flavonoids, as the compounds tend to impart a bitter flavor and are often removed during processing.
For a long time, scientists believed that the powerful antioxidant properties of flavonoids – allowing them to scour damaging free radicals from the body – were behind their health effects. Alzheimer’s-related flavonoid research fell out of favor, however, when studies demonstrated that most flavonoids break down rapidly in the body and cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, and when tests with other antioxidants such as Vitamin E showed no benefit in dementia patients.
New research suggests that flavonoids may operate by a different mechanism entirely to provide benefit to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, however.
“There have been some intriguing epidemiological studies that the consumption of flavonoid-rich vegetables, fruit juices and red wine delays the onset of the disease,” said Robert Williams of Kings College London.
In a presentation to the summer meeting of the British Pharmacological Society in Edinburgh, Williams reported findings that the chemical epicatechin, in the catechin family of flavonoids, can reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease when taken orally.
“We have found that epicatechin protects brain cells from damage but through a mechanism unrelated to its antioxidant activity and shown in laboratory tests that it can also reduce some aspects of Alzheimer’s disease pathology,” Williams said. “This is interesting because epicatechin and its breakdown products are measurable in the bloodstream of humans for a number of hours after ingestion and it is one of the relatively few flavonoids known to access the brain suggesting it has the potential to be bioactive in humans.”
“Our findings support the general concept that dietary intake of flavonoid-rich foods or supplements could impact the development and progression of dementia,” Williams said, calling for more research.
Dementia from Traffic Fumes
November 23, 2009
Natural News
By E. Huff
A recent German study published in the journal Environmental Research revealed a definitive link between prolonged inhalation of automobile fumes and inflammation of the brain. An analysis of a group of women found that those who lived closest to busy roads were the most likely to develop memory problems and mild cognitive impairment, indicating the potential onset of fume-induced dementia.
The group from Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf constructed models that measured air pollution and the location of the womens’ homes in proximity to roads that were travelled by more than 10,000 cars in a day. Findings revealed that, among women under age 74, those that lived the closest to the busy roads performed the worst on cognition tests.
Since mild cognitive decline can indicate either a transition between normal aging and dementia, further research and follow-up with the women was emphasized. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most widely recognized forms of dementia and researchers continue to investigate its causes.
It is widely accepted that air pollution particles are so small that they are able to pass through the lungs and make their way into the brain. As a result, the brain tissue becomes inflamed and cognitive decline begins to occur. By crossing the blood-brain barrier and lodging themselves in the brain, these particulates are the primary suspect in causing cognitive dysfunction.
Toxic heavy metals such as aluminum and mercury act similarly in that they build up in the body, particularly in the brain, and cause serious problems. Antiperspirant deodorants, baking sodas, food additives, and vaccines commonly contain aluminum derivatives that many claim are the perpetrators in causing brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. Vaccines are also often loaded with mercury.
Industry must also strive to develop cleaner forms of energy that cause less of a negative impact upon people. Particularly with automobiles, clean fuel technologies are of critical importance since vehicle exhaust is known also to induce asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes.
One would do best to live as far away from busy roads and polluted areas as possible and to integrate an ongoing detoxification regime into his or her lifestyle. By continually ridding the body of lodged toxins with supplements such as chlorella, spirulina, and garlic, the potential for excessive toxin buildup is virtually impossible. By perpetually cleansing the body, it will be better able to fend off harmful disease despite inevitable exposure to various toxins.
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