Must reads

• A November 25, 2014 Tech Times article reported on new research linking Alzheimer's and Schizophrenia. According to the article, "Oxford University researchers examined 484 healthy subjects, aged 8 to 85, utilizing Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, studying how human brains change as aging takes place. They found regions of the brain that developed last were also the first to deteriorate with advanced age. These areas help to direct high-level processing of visual, auditory and other sensory information, and are associated with long-term memory and intellectual ability. This part of the brain does not develop until adolescence or early adulthood. "These complex regions, which combine information coming from various senses, seem to be more vulnerable than the rest of the brain to both schizophrenia and Alzheimer's, even though these two diseases have different origins and appear at very different, almost opposite, times of life," Gwenaëlle Douaud of Oxford University said."
• A November 25, 2014 Morgan Hill Times opinion piece (CA) by State Senator Bill Monning underscored the growing cost of Alzheimer's. According to Sen. Monning, "More than either heart disease or cancer, Alzheimer's is the most expensive condition in the nation. In 2014, the direct costs to American society to care for those with Alzheimer’s are estimated to be $214 billion, and include $150 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid. Alzheimer's will cost an estimated $1.2 trillion (in today's dollars) in 2050…Alzheimer's disease is the only cause of death among the top 10 in America that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed. Because the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease remain somewhat elusive, the study of the disease has become a key focus for both the medical and public health communities. To date, the most powerful tools found to thwart the disease are healthy lifestyle choices and adequate access to healthcare." Bill Monning is State Senator of California’s 17th district, which includes Morgan Hill and South County.
• A November 25, 2014 MedScape.com article reported "A neuronal protein that is defective in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and detectable in blood may be able to predict the disease up to 10 years before clinical symptoms appear." According to the article, "The protein, insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), plays a key role in insulin signaling in the brain. Brain insulin resistance occurs in AD even in the absence of peripheral insulin resistance, but until now, no brain biomarker of brain insulin resistance has been discovered…n a longitudinal analysis of 22 patients with AD who provided blood samples 1 to 10 years before diagnosis, preclinical and clinical levels of these proteins were indistinguishable; preclinical levels of all three differed significantly from those of control participants."