MUST READS AND LISTEN 

A January 26, 2015 South China Morning Post article profiled China's efforts to brace itself for "an onslaught of dementia with 30m cases predicted by 2050." According to the article, "With one of the fastest-greying populations in the world, China is on a global hunt for solutions to an impending health crisis as age-related problems such as dementia threaten to sweep the country, with 30 million patients predicted by 2050.And while the growing number of elderly citizens threatens to burden the country's health care system and public facilities, China also faces a unique challenge under its one-child policy as the ratio of taxpayers and caregivers to senior citizens who need their help will soon shift dramatically.David Gray, a British expert in health care issues, said his team was working with a northeastern province to build a service model, based on the British health care system, for treating mental diseases including dementia. He declined to identify the province, as no official announcement had been made."

 A January 24, 2015 News-Press (FL) article highlighted the need for increased Alzheimer's research funding and volunteers for clinical trials. According to the article, "Dr. Fred Schaerf, the center's founder and principal investigator, said he believes there still is too little research funding and too few people willing to participate in such studies. It's really a problem," said Schaerf, whom Gov. Rick Scott appointed last fall to sit on the board overseeing a new Florida Alzheimer's research program. "We have a national problem of people not going into trials." Federal funding of Alzheimer's research totaled an estimated $566 million last year…It's hardly the lowest in U.S. disease spending but well below the amounts spent researching such things as HIV/AIDS ($2.9 billion), heart disease ($1.3 billion), diabetes ($1 billion) and breast cancer ($674 million)."

A January 24, 2015 NPR News segment interviewed Greg O'Brien, a journalist diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's who authored a memoir about his life with the disease called "On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer's." According to O'Brien, "There are millions more [people] out there who are suffering through the stages of early-onset Alzheimer's who are afraid to seek help. They're afraid to talk to people…If I could help give them that voice so maybe things get a little better for them, then that's good."

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A January 23, NPR article reported that researchers have found that leaky blood vessels might contribute to Alzheimer's disease. According to the article, "An MRI study of found those experiencing mild problems with thinking and memory had much leakier blood vessels in the hippocampus. "This is exactly the area of the brain that is involved with learning and memory," says Berislav Zlokovic, the study's senior author and director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the University of Southern California. The study, published in Neuron, also found that blood vessels in the hippocampus tend to become leakier in all people as they age. But the process is accelerated in those likely to develop Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia."

A January 23, 2015 Fox News article reported that "Researchers say they’ve developed a nasal spray that could potentially improve memory and other mental capabilities for the more than 5 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease." According to the article, "In a pilot study at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, researchers studied 60 adults between the ages of 55 and 85 diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild to moderate Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Participants were nasally administered doses of man-made insulin called insulin detemir for 21 days…Participants who received 40 international unit (IU) doses of insulin detemir over the course of the trial showed significant improvement in their short-term ability to retain and process verbal and visual information, compared with those who received 20 IU doses or a placebo. According to Craft, performance on tests of mental manipulation and memory improved by as much as 25 percent."

ENTERTAINMENT

A January 23, 2015 Rolling Stone article reported that The Voice finalist Chris Man partnered with Alzheimer's researcher Dr. Rudy Tanzi to release "Remember Me," a song about Alzheimer's. According to the article, "Crossover classical singer Chris Mann first came to national attention in 2012 as a top four finalist on The Voice. But now he's lending his voice to an important cause, national non-profit research organization the Cure Alzheimer's Fund (CAF), with "Remember Me." The charity single was co-written with world-renowned neuroscientist and Alzheimer's researcher Dr. Rudy Tanzi, who also happens to be a keyboardist who jams with Joe Perry and Aerosmith on the side."