OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE. A film directed by Ric Burns. I recently saw this documentary film about Oliver Sacks – neurologist, observer of humanity and storyteller. Sacks died in 2015 with melanoma. The film starts, just a few months before his death, with a gathering of people close to him. It explores his life, works, humanity, personal foibles and challenges, and his huge contribution to popular understanding of variants and abnormalities of brain function. If you go to see…..
APATHY: A POSSIBLE EARLY SIGN OF DEMENTIA. The affected person may reduce their usual social and other activities and sometimes be less concerned about their personal care. They may also have difficulties planning and carrying out more than the most simple activities without prompting. None of these behaviours need to be a matter of concern unless they represent a change for that person. Apathy can challenge the person’s family and professional carers/caregivers who may think that the person is depressed…..
CLAIM OF ‘BEATING’ ALZHEIMER’S OVERBLOWN AND MISLEADING This ANU press release taken up by many websites and media including the ABC states ‘It may be possible to prevent Alzheimer’s disease for those experiencing cognitive decline’. It may be possible but THIS STUDY DOES NOT ESTABLISH THAT AT ALL. Many other studies have now confirmed that the RISK of developing dementia (including Alzheimer’s – one cause of dementia) can probably be reduced by adopting diet and lifestyle changes. The ANU study…..
AZHEIMER’S WIFE & CARER STORY: often told but always worth repeating. A full account of the Alzheimer’s carer journey written by Dr Muriel Porter, whose husband developed Alzheimer’s and who is now in an Aged Care Facility (Nursing Home), shut down and unvisited because of covid 19. A story of ongoing grief and courageous coping. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-29/aged-care-living-with-unmourned-grief/12570328
BLOOD TEST FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. PROMISING – BUT. The blood test (for P-Tau 217) examined in this research (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768841) appears to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease from other common causes of dementia. That is potentially useful for research and could be practically and clinically useful as well, for at least two reasons: (1) to provide a diagnosis – an explanation for a person experiencing problems with functions such as memory or word-finding. (2) to allow early interventions which could stop or slow…..
Using MRI imaging it is now possible to picture in detail the nerve connections between different parts of the brain – the ‘connectome’, the wiring diagram. This Scientific American article describes some studies comparing connections in different animals. One huge seven year study by Yaniv Assef and Yossi Yovel compares the brains of 123 mammalian species. Another by Martijn van den Heuvel compared our brain connections to those of chimpanzees and found that, although we share 255 connections, 33 connections…..
FIVE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE BEHAVIOURS have been found to be associated with a LOWER RISK OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. A recently published study confirms previous evidence that the risk of Alzheimer’s disease is reduced in people who follow some or all of 5 ‘healthy lifestyle’ behaviours: (a) not smoking (b) 150 minutes or more per week of moderate/vigorous-intensity physical activity (c) light to moderate alcohol consumption (d) a MIND diet (see below) and (e) engagement in late-life cognitive activities. https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2020/06/16/WNL.0000000000009816 The MIND…..
“MUSIC, ESPECIALLY THE MUSIC THAT MOVES US MOST, CAN BOND PEOPLE TOGETHER” wrote the authors of this study who demonstrated (unsurprisingly) that music listener’s cortical brain activity mirrored the music performer’s activity. This study went a step further however to show that the greater the mirroring (‘inter-brain coherence’) the more the listener was “fond of the performance”. The researchers (based in Shanghai, Harbin and Stockholm) used an imaging technique (functional near infra-red spectroscopy) and recorded levels of activity in the…..
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE LINKED TO CITY POLLUTION?. Cause and effect?. If a cause then what is the mechanism?. More and more recent studies show a strong connection between exposure to airborne particles from car exhausts and Alzheimer’s disease (and possibly Lewy Body disease). The tiny airborne particles (Particulate Matter or PM 2.5), 1/30th diameter of a human hair) probably enter the brain via the nose, olfactory (smell) nerve and olfactory bulb or via a weakened ‘blood-brain barrier’. They may act by…..
HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE (HD) PIONEER, ADVOCATE AND RESEARCHER ACKNOWLEDGES DEVELOPING HUNTINGTON’S HERSELF. Dr Nancy Wexler, PhD, Professor of Neuropsychology, has spent the last 40 years researching, co-ordinating research, campaigning for and initiating care and counselling services for Huntington’s sufferers and their families. In order to further the cause of reducing stigma associated with the diagnosis, she recently acknowledged that she has developed features of this progressive brain disorder. She continues to work. Dr Wexler cared for her mother when her mother…..