October 16, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

Dr. Rudy Tanzi talks about how his latest breakthrough could "revolutionize research," the impact of rising Alzheimer's cost, and the link between walking and brain health (read more). 
 

Must reads

  • An October 15, 2014 Newsweek article highlighted the potential of growing Alzheimer's in a petri dish to "revolutionize research." According to the article, "For 30 years it’s been conjecture, it’s been debatable,” Rudolph Tanzi, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Genetics and Aging Research Unit and Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation at Harvard Medical School, tells Newsweek. But now, three decades later, a research team led by Tanzi has unequivocally shown that amyloid leads to the iconic tangles Dr. Alois Alzheimer first described in 1906, and thus to the symptoms of the disease…“We’re going to go crazy, use this system to screen as many drugs as we can,” says Tanzi. He and his team have already begun raising funds to test every single one of the 1,200 compounds currently approved by the FDA, he says, and 5,000 or 6,000 more that have passed phase 1 trials for safety but have yet to be approved."
  • An October 15, 2014 U.S. News & World Report article reported on the rising cost of Alzheimer's care and its impact on personal finances. According to the article, "In 2014, costs associated with Alzheimer’s care are expected to reach $214 billion, making it the most expensive condition in the country, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The amount needed to provide care for one Alzheimer’s patient ranges from $21 an hour for a home health aide to $239 a day for care in a nursing home. Without insurance coverage for these costs, families can easily go into medical debt. Or they could try to reduce the patient’s assets in an effort to qualify for Medicaid, which has more liberal coverage for long-term care of low-income Alzheimer’s patients." Also reported on by the Wall Street Journal
  • An October 15, 2014 The Atlantic article reported on the link between walking and brain health. According to the article, "Other long-term studies also show that even modest exercise can serve
 as a bulwark against dementia. A study started in 1989 with 299 elderly 
volunteers in the Pittsburgh area tracked mental acuity and exercise habits.
The subjects’ brains were assessed by MRI two to three years later, and then 
again in 2008, when the first of two measurements of their cognitive function was also performed; the second of these took place four years after that. The results, published in the journal Neurology, were sweeping and conclusive: Those who walked the most cut in half their risk of developing memory problems. The optimal exercise for cognitive health benefits, the 
researchers concluded, was to walk six to nine miles each week. That’s a mile to a mile and a half a day, without walking on Sundays if you’re inclined to follow Weston’s example of resting on the Sabbath. (This study concluded that walking an additional mile didn’t help all that much.)"